Helena Karlström receives two international grants
Helena Karlström, senior lecturer at the Division of Neurogeriatrics is awarded 250 000 Euro (approximately 2,8 million SEK) from the Dutch Brain Foundation for the project ”NOTCH3 immunotherapy to target toxic protein aggregation in CADASIL”.
In addition, she receives 3,6 million SEK from the European Joint program – Rare Diseases (EJP-RD) for the project ”CADASIL-Naturliga sjukdomsförloppet ”.
CADASIL is the most common familial form of small vessel disease, and the cause of about 20% of all stroke, and more than 40% of dementia in older adults, and is increasing in an aging population.
The grant from the Dutch Brain Foundation will be used to explore ways to restore the brain vascular system, by testing an immunotherapeutic strategy for treatment, which is based on a previous publish study by my group, a CADASIL mouse model with ongoing pathology in the vessels. The aim is to examine if the treatment can prevent, stop, or even cure the CADASIL-similar pathology found in a mouse model of the disease.
The project ”CADANHIS - CADASIL-Naturliga sjukdomsförlopp”, which receives funding from the European Joint Program-Rare Diseases, aims to speed up the therapeutic research on CADASIL by identifying the best clinical manifestations to focus on when testing future treatments, as well as new methods and biomarkers in order to better predict development of the disease. The project is based on a consortium consisting of patients and families from five European countries and seven teams of clinicians and researchers.