Rachel D Hendrix

Washington University in St. Louis | WUSTL , Wash U · Department of Neurology

The immune system substantially influences age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression, affected by genetic and environmental factors. In a Mayo Clinic Study of Aging cohort, we examined how risk factors like APOE genotype, age, and sex affect inflammatory molecules and AD biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Among co...

Objective A clock relating amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) to time was used to estimate the timing of biomarker changes in sporadic Alzheimer disease (AD). Methods Research participants were included who underwent cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collection within 2 years of amyloid PET. The ages at amyloid onset and AD symptom onset were esti...

Background There are currently excellent fluid biomarkers of brain amyloidosis, including CSF Aβ42/Aβ40 and CSF pT217/T217 (%). However, many individuals with brain amyloidosis do not have symptoms of Alzheimer disease (AD). Biomarkers that are strongly associated not only with brain amyloidosis but also with symptomatic AD would be invaluable tool...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with disturbances in blood glucose regulation, and type-2 diabetes elevates the risk for dementia. A role for amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) in linking these age-related conditions has been proposed, tested primarily in transgenic mouse lines that overexpress mutated amyloid precursor protein (APP). Because APP has it...

Amyloid‐β (Aβ) peptide aggregation into soluble oligomers and insoluble plaques is a precipitating event in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Given that synaptic activity can regulate Aβ generation, we postulated that 5HT2A‐Rs may regulate Aβ as well. We treated APP/PS1 transgenic mice with the selective 5HT2A inverse agonists M100907 o...

The amyloid precursor protein (APP) is a type-I transmembrane glycoprotein widely studied for its role as the source of β-amyloid peptide, accumulation of which is causal in at least some cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD). APP is expressed ubiquitously and is involved in diverse biological processes. Growing bodies of evidence indicate connections...

Background: Events that instigate disease may involve biochemical events distinct from changes in the steady-state levels of proteins. Even chronic degenerative disorders appear to involve changes such as post-translational modifications. New method: We have begun a series of proteomics analyses on proteins that have been fractionated by functio...

The conserved oligomeric Golgi (COG) complex is an evolutionary conserved multi-subunit vesicle tethering complex essential for the majority of Golgi apparatus functions: protein and lipid glycosylation and protein sorting. COG is present in neuronal cells, but the repertoire of COG function in different Golgi-like compartments is an enigma. Defect...

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP) are a unique class of proteins that do not require a stable structure for function. The importance of IDPs in many biological processes has been established but there remain unanswered questions about their evolution and conservation of their disordered state within a protein family. Our group has been studyi...