Dr. Axel Montagne
- Senior Lecturer
Organisation Associations
Current research interests
The overall goal of our research is to understand how cerebrovascular dysfunctions contribute to neurodegeneration and dementia in order to identify new targets for treatments.
Our work combines molecular approaches with rodent non-invasive imaging, particularly MRI & PET, to study the causes & effects of blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction in the context of neurodegenerative disease. BBB dysfunction is a major cause of inflammatory & bioenergetic deregulation in the brain, but the interplay between pericytes & endothelial cells that causes this collapse is not fully delineated. We are currenlty focusing on probing BBB function & pericyte-endothelial crosstalk, especially the consequences of pericyte dysfunction on endothelial cells & the BBB, plus reciprocal signaling by activated endothelial cells.
Key research aims:
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Assess the impact of modulating both pericyte and endothelial cell functions to define the downstream consequences for the other cell type, and for BBB functions
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Determine the role of resident microglia and systemic immune cells in responding to a compromised endothelium-pericyte interplay, and their contribution to BBB integrity
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Test BBB preserving interventions in an in vitro platform
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Define the impact of vascular-targeted therapeutic interventions for ameliorating vascular, neuronal, and cognitive functions in the context of SVD & AD
Research in a nutshell
Our brain is an energy-hungry organ surrounded by a rich network of blood vessels supplying the oxygen and nutrients required to function. It is essential that the microenvironment in the brain is finely controlled, and this is achieved through the specialist blood-brain-barrier (BBB) structure. However, dysfunction of the BBB is recognised as one of the earliest events in the progression of brain disorders that cause dementia, and scientists are working to understand why this occurs.
We have previously discovered that one type of cell within the BBB, the pericyte, is particularly affected during disease and we aim to fully understand the consequences to the BBB and brain health as a whole. Using a combination of advanced molecular and imaging techniques including MRI, we seek to uncover the disease mechanisms at play and identify therapeutic targets for intervention.