# Core G: MESA Core

> **NIH NIH P30** · WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2020 · $452,652

## Abstract

MESA Core (Core G) – Project Summary 
No therapies have proven effective against Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia. As a result, the field has 
shifted focus to develop strategies for prevention, early intervention, and the identification of early antecedent 
biomarkers and risk factors that predict later life vulnerability or resilience to dementia. To address these 
important scientific goals, an existing cohort of older adults – well characterized with regard to mid- to later-life 
metabolic and vascular risk factors – will be integrated into the Wake Forest ADCC. The Multi-Ethnic Study of 
Atherosclerosis (MESA) is a multi-site study of subclinical and incident vascular and metabolic disease, and 
Wake Forest is one of six clinical sites. This partnership between MESA and the ADCC provides a unique 
opportunity to leverage the longitudinal characterization of MESA participants to complement and expand our 
Center's theme focused on metabolic and vascular pathogenetic contributions to AD and other related 
disorders. In 2000, 734 adults, aged 58 to 97 years (46% African-American, 54% non-Hispanic Caucasian), 
were enrolled into the Wake Forest MESA cohort. Participants have undergone extensive metabolic 
phenotyping (e.g., fasting glucose, insulin, hemoglobin A1C, lipid particle size, plasma lipidomic and 
metabolomic analyses); vascular phenotyping (e.g., arterial stiffness, coronary artery calcification, carotid 
ultrasound); whole genome and exome sequencing and epigenetic characterization; repeated retinal imaging, 
and a brief cognitive assessment in 2010-2012. The ADCC MESA Core will add clinical and cognitive 
assessments (Uniform Data Set and supplemental cognitive tests); neuroimaging (MRI, amyloid PET); and 
collection of CSF and brains. With the support of an NIA-funded ADCC, we will be able to enroll 540 MESA 
participants within the first 2 years of our award period and repeat assessments 3 years later, as 
recommended in the P30 RFA to accomplish the following Specific Aims: 1) assess clinical, cognitive, and 
neurological endpoints in MESA participants to characterize MCI, AD, VCI, and other related disorders, and to 
facilitate research focused on relationships between cognitive status and antecedent metabolic and vascular 
risk factors; 2) conduct longitudinal follow-up of MESA Core participants to permit examination of antecedent 
metabolic and vascular biomarkers that predict cognitive and biomarker trajectories (decline and resilience), 
incident MCI, and AD/VCI; 3) provide multidimensional data and other resources to foster systems and 
pathway analyses of genetic, epigenetic, and phenotypic data to identify the metabolic and vascular pathways 
that predict dementia risk, and elucidate the clinical and pathophysiologic relationships between AD and VCI to 
inform the development of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets; and 4) provide resources to facilitate 
investigations examining the potential impact of race on relat...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9981590
- **Project number:** 5P30AG049638-05
- **Recipient organization:** WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** STEPHEN R RAPP
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $452,652
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9981590

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9981590, Core G: MESA Core (5P30AG049638-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9981590. Licensed CC0.

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