La Jolla Biotech Firm Looking at Obesity Connection to Alzheimer's

La Jolla, Calif.-based INmune Bio is investigating the link between obesity and Alzheimer's disease with a focus on chronic inflammation, reports the La Jolla Light . Chronic inflammation is the product of multiple factors that include genetics and lifestyle, and INmune Bio CEO RJ Tesi said "metabolic problems such as obesity actually contribute to this. The inflammation of fat cells spills over and . . . you get inflammation in your body and that inflammation spreads and affects the brain." The inflammation can then disrupt the synapses that enable neurons to communicate. "When you get chronic inflammation and neuroinflammation, the nerve cells start dying off and the synapses start getting disrupted so they can't talk to each other," Tesi said. "That combination of nerve cell loss and lack of communication is what gives you Alzheimer's." A mice study by INmune Bio's Malú Tansey published in Alzheimer's Research & Therapy found that combining a high-fat, high-fructose diet with no exercise determined that an obesity-induced peripheral elevated risk of inflammation in turn drives an increased risk of inflammation centrally. Tesi said his company aims to treat Alzheimer's in the near term to prevent it from worsening, with the long-term goal being complete prevention.