VA Research Wrap Up: New findings on caregivers, Alzheimer’s disease, and toxic exposure

This week, VA’s Office of Research and Development published three News Briefs highlighting research advances for Veterans in caregiver training, Alzheimer’s disease and toxic exposure.

New video training prepares families for home care

Researchers from the Durham and Minneapolis VAs, and the Mayo Clinic, created a program to help rural family caregivers prepare for the transition of patients with severe and life-limiting illnesses from the hospital to their homes. Transitional palliative care is an 8-week program administered by palliative care nurses by video and designed to teach family caregivers how to prepare for the patient’s care needs, as well as how to communicate effectively with the health care team. The researchers randomly assigned caregivers to either the new program or to a control group that received monthly phone calls. Caregivers who received the training felt better prepared to meet the patient’s care needs, such as identifying and addressing emerging issues before they became dire. The results show pairing rural family caregivers with palliative care nurses for video training can lead to better care of seriously ill patients, although more work may be needed to improve caregivers’ communication skills. View the full study from the “Journal of Palliative Medicine.”

Gene therapy shows promise for Alzheimer’s disease

San Diego VA researchers demonstrated in mouse models that targeting specific brain neurons through gene therapy in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease may help preserve memory and stimulate neuron growth. The researchers focused on the protein Cav-1, which promotes the growth and survival of connecting paths within the brain. They administered a synthetic copy of Cav-1, SynCav-1, to the brains of mice with an Alzheimer’s-like condition. SynCav-1 demonstrated the ability to preserve cognitive function and memory in the mice. Molecular analysis showed SynCav-1 protects neurons from degeneration and may even help grow new neuronal paths. The results suggest this type of gene therapy could be a promising new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. View the full study from “Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy.”

Exposure to toxic dust linked to lung disease

Researchers from the Eastern Colorado VA Health Care System and National Jewish Health showed deployment exposure to dust from sources such as burn pits and diesel exhaust is connected to distal lung disease. Distal lung diseases such as bronchiolitis and emphysema affect the smaller airways and lung tissue, and they can cause symptoms such as difficulty breathing, chronic cough and wheezing. Using a new microscopy technique they developed on lung biopsies, the researchers showed the lung tissue of Veterans with deployment-related distal lung disease had significantly more pigmentation caused by airborne toxins than healthy controls. The findings implicate dust exposure as a cause of distal lung disease in Veterans deployed to Southwest Asia and Afghanistan. View the full study from the “American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.”

For more Office of Research and Development updates, visit ORD online or go to https://www.research.va.gov/news_briefs/.