A new collaborative study by Dr. Dongming Cai, MD, PhD and her team at the Grossman Center, Dr. Bin Zhang, PhD and his team at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Dr. Junming Peng, PhD and his team at St Jude Hospital, published and featured on the cover of Cell October 30th, 2025 issue (Wang E. et al. Cell 188(22):6186-6204.e13.), sheds light on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis with novel targets identified for future drug development.
The research teams performed comprehensive large scale multi-Omics analysis of brain samples from more than 200 research subjects with or without AD and examined more than 12,000 proteins interacting in the brain. They discovered that disrupted communications between neurons and supporting glia, astrocytes and microglia, contribute to the progression of AD. One key driver, AHANK was identified as a top player in these disease processes with the potential as a future therapeutic target for AD. Current work in Dr. Cai’s team at Grossman center is focused on repurposing FDA-approved drugs targeted at this key driver and the AD subnetwork it resides in with the hope to reverse disease processes and restore the communications between neurons and glia cells in the brain into a normal healthy state.
