Perminder Sachdev AM

There is currently no treatment to prevent or modify the course of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative dementias. Delivering drugs across the blood-brain barrier has been a major challenge in many neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer's disease. However, nanotechnology, which is a science based on manipulating matter at the nanoscale, may offer a solution. Using the latest developments in nanoscience, this project aimed to overcome two such obstacles – diagnosis and drug delivery. 

Using nanotechnology, key findings from this project were:

 1) successful attachment of specialised ‘treatment’ molecules to nanoparticles, which crossed the blood-brain barrier in mice;

2) 'treatment' molecules detected and bound to Alzheimer’s disease plaques in mice brain and;

3) MRI of the mice brains was able to detect these nanoparticles and diseased plaques. These findings will help to uncover new pathways for diagnosis via MRI and the development of effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

Read more about this exciting project

Villalva MD, Agarwal V, Ulanova M, Sachdev PS, Braidy N. Quantum dots as a theranostic approach in Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review. Nanomedicine (Lond). 2021 Aug;16(18):1595-1611. https://doi.org/10.2217/nnm-2021-0104. Epub 2021 Jun 28. PMID: 34180261.

Braidy N, Wen W, Bongers A, Sachdev PS. Applications of magnetic particle imaging in the dementias. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2021 Mar 1;34(2):186-192. https://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0000000000000668. PMID: 33196564.

Gloag L, Mehdipour M, Ulanova M, Mariandry K, Nichol MA, Hernández-Castillo DJ, Gaudet J, Qiao R, Zhang J, Nelson M, Thierry B, Alvarez-Lemus MA, Tan TT, Gooding JJ, Braidy N, Sachdev PS, Tilley RD. Zero valent iron core-iron oxide shell nanoparticles as small magnetic particle imaging tracers. Chem. Commun., 2020,56, 3504-3507 doi: https://doi.org/10.1039/C9CC08972A

Ulanova M, Poljak A, Wen W, Bongers A, Gloag L, Gooding J, Tilley R, Sachdev P, Braidy N. Nanoparticles as contrast agents for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease: a systematic review. Nanomedicine (Lond). 2020 Mar;15(7):725-743. https://doi.org/10.2217/nnm-2019-0316. Epub 2020 Mar 6. PMID: 32141799.

At the time of Award, Professor Sachdev AM was a Scientia Professor of Neuropsychiatry at UNSW Sydney (UNSW), Co-Director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), UNSW, and Clinical Director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, Australia.