Are Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes connected? Researchers at the University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Center are exploring a potential link among Alzheimer’s, glucose and brain metabolism.

Previous research has linked type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, but it’s not clear how the two conditions may be connected. Just as the bodies of people with diabetes do not use insulin correctly, some studies have shown the brains of people with Alzheimer’s have trouble using glucose. Those findings have led to the idea that Alzheimer’s disease may be a form of diabetes that affects the brain.

Now, researchers at the KU ADC have launched a clinical research trial involving people with Alzheimer’s disease and dapagliflozin, a drug used to treat diabetes. Will that drug improve cognition?

In this video, Jeffrey Burns, M.D., co-director of the KU Alzheimer’s Disease Center and director of the Memory Care Clinic at The University of Kansas Health System, talks about the study, brain metabolism and clinical research opportunities at the KU Alzheimer’s Disease Center