AD/PD 2021 | The olfactory mucosa as a potential in vitro model for AD

Riikka Lampinen, MSc, University of East Finland, Kuopio, Finland, describes the study of cultured olfactory mucosal (OM) cells derived from nasal biopsies of patients with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and age-matched healthy subjects to evaluate disease-specific alterations in these cells. Single-cell RNA sequencing demonstrated that the cultured OM cells from late-onset AD patients displayed pathological features of AD including increased secretion of amyloid beta peptide 42. These results support the potential future use of OM cells as a patient-derived in vitro research model for AD that would allow the study of early-stage disease mechanisms and epigenetic alterations. This interview took place during the AD/PD™ 2021 conference.