# Glucose metabolism, synaptic plasticity, and oxidative stress in Alzheimer's Disease

> **NIH NIH P01** · WINIFRED MASTERSON BURKE MED RES INST · 2020 · $537,934

## Abstract

Glucose metabolism, synaptic plasticity, and oxidative stress in Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of cognitive disability in the United States. It affects
over 5 million Americans at annual cost in excess of $150 billion. Despite the human suffering and
financial burden, there are no proven therapies to stem progression of the disease. Members of this
program project have provided support for the notion that alterations in brain glucose metabolism are
not only highly correlated with cognitive decline in AD, but can precede symptom onset by years in
those at risk. The ability of normal function to be maintained in those with diminished glucose
suggests the existence of compensatory mechanisms which forestall the disease but fail over the
long term. This proposal will explore the interplay of those adaptive compensatory mechanisms and
the maladaptive ones that lead to cognitive decline over the long term. In preliminary studies, we
have unexpectedly found that lowering glucose uptake into cultured neurons or into the hippocampus
in vivo enhances activity-dependent gene expression but increases vulnerability to oxidative stress.
Our overall hypothesis is that diminished glucose into neurons early in AD preserves learning and
memory but creates long term vulnerability to oxidative stress and A-beta overproduction. We believe
that diminished glucose leads to near term improvements in synaptic function via the deglycosylation
of transcription factors, specifically CREB. Deglycosylation at serine 40 leads to recruitment of the
coactivator TORC (transducer of regulated CREB), and induction of genes associated with learning
and memory (CREB, BDNF) as well as mitochondrial biogenesis (PGC1). Our aims, which integrate
with all members of the PPG using differentiated human cortical neurons (Project 2) or an AD mouse
model (TG19959, Projects, 3 and 4) are targeted at developing strategies to maintain the short term,
beneficial effects of glucose deprivation on learning and memory while interdicting the ability of this
enzyme to trigger oxidative death and increased A production over the long term. In our last aim,
we will use a novel reporter of the redox regulated transcription factor, Nrf-2 expressed in astrocytes
as a strategy to identify when redox dyshomeostasis occurs in the TG19959 model of AD. We will
also use this reporter to develop, with Project 4, a safer and more effective approach using an FDA
approved Nrf-2 activator in combination with an FDA approved antioxidant which we predict will nullify
oxidative stress while maintaining adaptive plasticity associated gene expression.Together these
studies will evaluate novel targets and therapies for optimizing the adaptive effects of reducing
glucose into neurons on learning and memory while minimizing deleterious consequences related to
oxidative stress and bioenergetic dysfunction.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9926805
- **Project number:** 5P01AG014930-19
- **Recipient organization:** WINIFRED MASTERSON BURKE MED RES INST
- **Principal Investigator:** Rajiv R Ratan
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $537,934
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9926805

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9926805, Glucose metabolism, synaptic plasticity, and oxidative stress in Alzheimer's Disease (5P01AG014930-19). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-14 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9926805. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*