# Diet Patterns and Alzheimer Disease and Other Dementias

> **NIH NIH R01** · RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · $432,876

## Abstract

Principal Investigator/Program Director (Last, First, Middle): Morris, Martha Clare
This R01 application, entitled “Diet Patterns and Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementia
Neuropathologies” is a revised submission in response to PAR-15-356. By the year 2050 it is
projected that there will be 13.5 million Americans with AD at a cost of $1.1 trillion. Currently there is
no cure for AD and no effective treatments. Preventive therapies are thus crucial for heading off a
public health crisis. It is estimated that delaying dementia onset by just 5 years will reduce the cost
and prevalence of the disease by half. Lifestyle interventions are an excellent strategy for population-
wide impact. There is considerable epidemiological evidence linking diet to AD prevention, supported
by underlying biologic mechanisms in the disease etiology for individual nutrients. In addition, a large
number of AD risk factors have a demonstrated dietary basis. Dietary patterns including the DASH
and Mediterranean diets and a hybrid of these diets called MIND (Mediterranean-DASH Diet
Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) have been related to slower rates of cognitive decline and
decreased incidence of AD. To date there has not been a study that has related dietary patterns to
Alzheimer disease brain neuropathology or other neuropathologies associated with dementia. The
clinical-neuropathologic cohort study, the Rush Memory and Aging Project affords the unique
opportunity to investigate the relation of these healthy diet patterns to brain neuropathologies and to
brain health. The extensive clinical and dietary data obtained among 600 hundred study participants
with autopsy data will allow for unprecedented examination of diet pattern relations to multiple
neuropathologies associated with AD dementia (amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and
CERAD, Braak, and NIA Reagan scores), vascular dementia (macro- and micro-infarcts, TDP-43,
atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis, cerebral amyloid angiopathy), other dementias (Lewy bodies,
hippocampal sclerosis) and presynaptic proteins, a measure of brain health and cognitive reserve.
The study will also examine the potential mediating roles of brain neuropathologies and of
presynaptic proteins on the MIND, DASH, and Mediterranean dietary pattern associations with
decline in cognitive function and clinical dementia. The study will advance the science by identifying
the neuropathologic biomechanisms underlying dietary relationships to cognitive decline, AD and
other dementias.
PHS 398/2590 (Rev. 09/04, Reissued 4/2006) Page Continuation Format Page

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10164689
- **Project number:** 5R01AG054476-05
- **Recipient organization:** RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Julie A. Schneider
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $432,876
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-01 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10164689

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10164689, Diet Patterns and Alzheimer Disease and Other Dementias (5R01AG054476-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10164689. Licensed CC0.

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