The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation has awarded a grant worth approximately $1.2 million to a team led by Hiroaki Sato and Thomas Schricker at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) for research into the effectiveness of intranasal insulin for delirium and cognitive dysfunction experienced by patients following surgery.
Sato commented, “Postoperative impairment of cognitive function is a growing healthcare problem as major surgery is being performed in an increasingly older patient population. Cognitive problems, which can be detected in nearly 50% of elderly patients after cardiac surgery, are associated with poor long-term outcome. . . . Prevention, prompt diagnosis and treatment of POD is important in reducing the risk of long-term postoperative cognitive decline and possibly Alzheimer’s disease.”
Schricker added. “The team brings unique expertise and resources to investigate intranasal insulin as a novel and attractive therapeutic option for the prevention of postoperative impairment of cognitive function. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to administer and study intranasal insulin to improve quality of life in surgical patients. The intranasal administration has the benefit of delivering insulin directly into the central nervous system (CNS), thereby bypassing the blood brain barrier and reducing systemic insulin exposure and the risk of hypoglycemia.”
Read the McGill University article.
