Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) profoundly affects memory and brain function in older individuals. It is a slow progressive disease which can last for a number of years - a heart-breaking, exhausting and often costly reality for family and health services. With an ageing population, AD health care provision needs will significantly rise. Existing treatments only temporarily treat specific imbalances in the brain but as yet there is no cure for AD. We will undertake a clinical trial at Bristol (in collaboration with University College London (UCL)) to see if losartan, a well tolerated blood pressure drug, can complement current treatments for AD. We believe losartan will slow down the progression of AD by improving brain blood flow and altering chemical pathways that cause brain cell damage, brain shrinkage and memory problems in AD. This study will use brain imaging to measure if losartan reduces brain shrinkage which is already known to be strongly linked with reduced memory function. We will also investigate if losartan alters the profile and activity of various blood-borne proteins which may be predictive of rates of disease progression. We want to study losartan because human and animal studies tell us reduced brain blood flow is a very common and early feature in AD and contributes to memory failure. Losartan blocks a chemical pathway (angiotensin II) to improve memory problems in mice designed to have Alzheimer’s features and in people given chemicals to temporarily affect their memories. Losartan is thought to stop angiotensin II from preventing the release of vital memory chemicals in the brain. We recently found that people who have previously taken losartan, or similar drugs, have lower risk of developing AD compared to other blood pressure drugs. These drugs also slow the rate of deterioration in patients with Alzheimer’s. However clinical trials of losartan and related drugs in people with high blood pressure have shown little evidence of a reduced risk of cognitive decline or dementia in general. These studies however did not include or specifically identify AD patients and would have had many patients with mainly vascular dementia patients which have not benefited. There are no major ethical issues in this study. It may also appear costly for a small study, but it uses expensive surrogate markers of disease that can be studied in a shorter time. RADAR will offer great value for money if this cheap (3-4p per day) well tolerated drug is found to be beneficial in AD. RADAR will also provide the requisite evidence needed to justify the much larger multi-centre trial (which will use cheaper measures of disease over a longer study time) that will be needed to provide the final proof of losartan’s benefit in AD. This trial which involves leading international centres for angiotensin research in dementia (Bristol) and imaging (UCL) should provide such evidence.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Aerosol generation occurs when tiny droplets of liquid are suspended in the air. Aerosols can be generated during many medical procedures. Some procedures might produce more aerosols than others, and droplets of different sizes, but there is a lot of uncertainty about this at the moment. What is known is that aerosols can carry viruses, like coronavirus, which risks further infections if inhaled by healthcare staff or other patients. Due to this potential risk, many operations have been delayed or are being performed with extra equipment, greatly reducing the ability of the NHS to resume important services. The AERATOR study aims to rapidly study the amount and type of aerosol generated when medical procedures are performed, and how infectious this aerosol is. This will be performed using specialist equipment in operating theatres and wards to measure real-life aerosol generation. By using specialist equipment, only available at Bristol University, we can also investigate how long coronavirus survives in clinical environments. This vital information will show how best to organise operating theatres, medical procedures, out-patient clinics, wards and use of protective equipment, in order to protect patients and staff while maximising the ability of the NHS to resume life-saving work.