The Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences (BPS) has awarded Rachita Sumbria, Ph.D., BPS Paper of the Year Award based on the publication, “Hepatic LRP-1 plays an important role in amyloidosis in Alzheimer’s disease mice: Potential role in chronic heavy alcohol feeding.”

The paper was published in Neurobiology of Disease journal, which has an impact factor of 5.6 and a Journal Citation Indicator (JCI) of 1.4. The article itself has a Relative Citation Ratio (RCR) of 3.6, indicating that it has received 3.6 times as many citations per year as the median NIH-funded paper in its field. The article has an NIH percentile of 88.4.

The study, which is a collaborative project between Chapman University, Keck Graduate Institute, and the University of Southern California, explores how chronic heavy alcohol consumption affects the liver-brain axis in Alzheimer’s disease, specifically examining hepatic LRP-1 expression (a liver protein that clears toxic amyloid proteins from the blood) and its role in peripheral amyloid beta clearance. In their findings, researchers observed significant results, including a 50% reduction in hepatic LRP-1 protein within five weeks of intragastric alcohol feeding in an APP/PS1 model, detected increased brain amyloid beta accumulation with corresponding reductions in plaque-associated microglia, and demonstrated through hepato-specific LRP-1 silencing experiments that reduced hepatic LRP-1 directly causes increased brain amyloid beta load and behavioral deficits.

These experiments will lead to further pharmaceutical discoveries aimed at understanding how hepatic LRP-1, a protective liver protein, can enhance the removal of toxic proteins from the bloodstream before they reach the brain, protect against alcohol-induced liver damage, and mitigate brain amyloid accumulation.

The research team included CUSP-affiliated postdoctoral research scientists Devaraj Venkatapura, Ph.D., Nataraj Jagadeesan, Ph.D., Ph.D. candidate Adenike Oyegbesan, Ph.D. students Urvashi Panchal and G. Chuli Roules, and faculty members Kamaljit Kaur, Ph.D., and Moom Roosan, Ph.D., Pharm.D.. This study was conceptualized in collaboration with Derick Han, Ph.D., from the Keck Graduate Institute and was funded by the National Institute of Aging under award number R01AG072896 awarded to Han and Sumbria.