# Antihypertensives and the Aging Brain

> **NIH NIH K76** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2020 · $230,327

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 The long-term career goal of the candidate is to identify treatment strategies for common medical
conditions that have beneficial impacts on brain health in late-life. The short-term career objectives of the
candidate are to: develop key research skills in causal inference methods, gain a basic understanding of
dementia-related neuropathology, learn about the diagnosis of dementia and neuropsychological testing in
clinical care, and develop communication skills and build strong foundations for local and national leadership.
Successful completion of the proposed research and career development program will position the candidate
to become an independent investigator and national leader in dementia pharmacoepidemiology – an area of
great opportunity for discovery. In part, this will be accomplished through coursework, mentored learning
experiences, and research-related activities. These experiences will allow the candidate to gain practical skills
that can be directly applied to the proposed K76 research to enhance research productivity. The Paul B.
Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging would provide the necessary resources,
training, and mentoring to achieve these career goals and objectives.
 The long-term objective of this proposed research is to prevent or delay dementia using brain-protectant
antihypertensives. The specific aims of this research are to: 1) test the hypothesis that after controlling for
their effects on blood pressure, exposure to Angiotensin (Ang)-II# drugs (compared with Ang-II$ drugs) will be
associated with lower risk of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and non-AD dementias; and 2) test whether, after
controlling for their effects on blood pressure, exposure to Ang-II# drugs (compared with Ang-II$ drugs) will
have an independent association with standard markers of neuropathology, including Braak stage, CERAD
level, cystic infarcts, microinfarcts, and Lewy bodies, as well as highly quantitative measures of neurotoxic
peptides, inflammation, and gliosis using a multiplexed Histelide assay, and increase resilience to the effects of
neuropathology, such that the association between these neuropathology measures and dementia outcomes
will be weaker. Aim 1 may help guide treatment of hypertension in adults to optimize brain health. Aim 2 will
provide evidence to understand the biological basis of any association between antihypertensives and
dementia. In summary, this Beeson K76 proposal outlines training and mentored research activities to support
the career development of Zachary A. Marcum, PharmD, PhD toward his goal of becoming an independently-
funded translational scientist researching methods to improve brain health for older adults. The Department of
Pharmacy at the University of Washington and the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
will provide a rich environment for the candidate.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9982746
- **Project number:** 5K76AG059929-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Zachary Adam Marcum
- **Activity code:** K76 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $230,327
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9982746

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9982746, Antihypertensives and the Aging Brain (5K76AG059929-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9982746. Licensed CC0.

---

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