PhD student Miruna Burduja

Miruna is a PhD student at the Alzheimer’s Society DTC for Vascular and Immune contributors to dementia. Her project is focused on:

Uncovering disease mechanisms involving sugar molecules in cerebral small vessel disease and vascular dementia 

Cerebral small vessel disease contributes to 25% of all stroke cases and 45% of all dementia cases. Importantly, it is the primary cause of vascular dementia, the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.

Tell us about your project

Cerebral small vessel disease describes any damage to the small blood vessels of the brain and is strongly associated with getting older, and risk factors such as high blood pressure and smoking. 

I like that this project is exploring a new avenue that hasn’t been previously investigated in the context of vascular dementia, the disease itself being understudied compared to Alzheimer’s disease.

Vascular dementia is a subtype of dementia, which describes particular types of vessel damage that then lead to a deterioration of cognition and, eventually, the symptoms of dementia. Pure vascular dementia makes up 20% of total number of dementia cases; however, vascular dementia type damage is also seen in mixed dementia and in Alzheimer’s.  

Blood vessels in the body are made up of a single celled layer of endothelial cells. These are not just building block cells providing a space for blood to move, but active cells which control how big or small the diameter of a blood vessel is and are involved the movement of molecules from the blood into other tissues – both functions can hugely impact blood pressure. Endothelial cells are also an important part of the inflammatory response when the body suffers infection and the repair response when a vessel is damaged.

The glycocalyx is a gel layer which lines all endothelial cells on the side of blood flow and allows them to function properly. The glycocalyx structure is made up of interlinking hair-like strands of different sugar molecules which bind to different components in the blood and then send information to the endothelial cells and blood cells.

The aims of my project are...

To find out if the glycocalyx is involved in vascular dementia and small vessel disease, for example:  

• Are there any changes in the glycocalyx between healthy and vascular dementia brains?
• Which exact components of the glycocalyx change?
• How do these changes relate to the structural damage seen in these diseases and the subsequent cognitive decline?
• Can the glycocalyx be targeted as a new strategy to help reverse the damage seen in these diseases? 

How will this research impact people living with dementia?

Understanding the underlying mechanisms of dementia can help provide a more global understanding of how dementia progresses, and how different types of structural damage can interact within the brain.  

This information is key for developing better drugs which are in dire need. Projects, which bring to light other causes for dementia and offer a more global understanding of the disease, will prove helpful in finding effective treatments for all the diseases underlying dementia.

What does it mean to you to be a part of an Alzheimer's Society Doctoral Training Centre?

Empowered to be part of such a large and diverse group of early career researchers who are all working towards the same common goal: solving the problem of dementia.