# Pathophysiology of Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCH OF MED/DNT · 2020 · $205,000

## Abstract

Alzheimer dementia (AD) is an increasingly prevalent cognitive disorder affecting older adults. It is associated
with significantly degraded quality of life for AD patients and caregivers alike, increasing expenses, morbidity,
and mortality. It has been demonstrated that urinary incontinence is present in at least 1/3 of AD patients, and
is a direct contributor to institutionalization of the AD patient. Since AD is the most common neurodegenerative
disease and incontinence has been regarded as a result of poor brain control over urinary function, it is
important to understand the neuronal linkages between these two diseases. This proposal aims to understand
how neuronal dysfunction arising from abnormal generation or accumulation of β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) impacts
bladder functions in the AD patient. More relevantly, structural changes such as amyloid deposition, formation
of neuritic plaque and neurofibrillary/tau occur in the brain preceding cognitive decline by typically two
decades, a similar structural “lead-time” may exist in the bladder as well. These changes, if present, might
offer a pathway to a feasible biomarker of early AD pathology in asymptomatic persons. In this exploratory
project, we will use multiple lines of established mouse AD models to test the hypothesis that a specific AD
structural and functional bladder phenotype exists. Secondarily, we will begin to test the temporal relationship
of bladder structure and function in the AD mouse vs. wild type mouse, and whether modulating structural
changes will affect function. The results of this project will therefore either confirm the existing brain-centric
model of AD pathophysiology, or expand the pathophysiologic model to include peripheral pathology important
to disease expression.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9849712
- **Project number:** 5R21AG061609-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCH OF MED/DNT
- **Principal Investigator:** XIANG-YOU HU
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $205,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-01-15 → 2022-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9849712

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9849712, Pathophysiology of Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease (5R21AG061609-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9849712. Licensed CC0.

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