Sanders-Brown Faculty

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Gregory A. Jicha, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Departmental Affiliation(s):

Neurology and Sanders-Brown Center on Aging

Research Focus:

While mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has largely been considered a pre-Alzheimer’s disease state, clinical and pathologic heterogeneity is common. Subtypes of MCI likely represent preclinical Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Vascular Dementia, Fronto-temporal Dementia, and others. Clinical investigations focus on the unique presentation and clinical course for each subtype of MCI and correlate this with final neuropathologic outcome to further refine and develop more accurate antemortem diagnosis of predementia degenerative disease states. Clinico-neuropathologic studies are also focused on defining the additive or synergistic roles of complex pathologic processes (cerebrovascular, Lewy body, and argyrophilic grain disease) in the development of dementia. Building collaborative efforts with researchers in neuropsychology, radiology, and the basic sciences (biomarker development) are a major focus of our bench-to-bedside translational research aims.

Ongoing collaborations with Kentucky Telecare are focused on developing, validating, and implementing clinical telemedicine evaluations for the assessment of MCI and dementia, building a translational (tertiary care to community) model system to improve access to high quality subspecialty healthcare throughout rural and remote areas of Kentucky. The establishment of this rural cohort is providing unique insights into risk factors for and clinical phenotype of cognitive decline in rural Appalachia. Other ongoing translational collaborative efforts include a partnership with the Department of Family Medicine to develop, validate, and implement ecologically-valid clinical tools for the diagnosis of MCI in the primary care setting. We intend to build a clinical cohort in this setting for the longitudinal evaluation of this population in an effort to demonstrate that we can reliably integrate the diagnosis of MCI and improve healthcare outcomes for cognitive decline in the primary care setting.

Clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease as part of the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study Group and pharmaceutical company-sponsored trials are also a focus of ongoing research efforts and activities. We are actively engaged in several state-of-the-art clinical trials in an effort to find better treatments and investigate potential cures for Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative dementias.

Lab Mission:

Our focus is on building a foundation for translational research in degenerative diseases, from bench to bedside, from bedside to practice, from medical centers to communities, in an effort to improve health care outcomes for all who suffer from Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases.

Recent Publications:

PT Nelson, E Abner, FA Schmitt, RJ Kryscio, GA  Jicha, CD Smith, DG Davis, JW Poduska, E Patel, MS Mendiondo, WR Markesbery. Modeling the association between 43 different clinical and pathological variables and the severity of cognitive impairment in a large autopsy cohort of elderly persons.  Brain Pathology, Nov 19, 2008 [E-Pub ahead of print]

PT Nelson, E Abner, SW Scheff, FA Schmitt, RJ Kryscio, GA  Jicha, CD Smith, E Patel, WR Markesbery. Alzheimer's-type neuropathology in the precuneus is not increased relative to other areas of neocortex across a range of cognitive impairment. Neurosci Lett. Nov 8, 2008 [E-Pub ahead of print]

GA Jicha, FA Schmitt, E. Abner, P. Nelson, GE Cooper, CD Smith, WR Markesbery. Prodromal clinical manifestations of neuropathologically confirmed neocortical Lewy body disease. Neurobiol Aging, Nov 19, 2008 [E-Pub ahead of print]

Nelson PT, Kryscio, RJ, Abner, EA, Schmitt, FA, Jicha, GA, Mendiondo, MS, Cooper, G, Smith, CB, and Markesbery, WR,  Acetylcholinesterase inhibitor treatment is associated with relatively slow cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and AD+DLB.  Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2008 (In Press).

Nelson PT, Smith, CD, Abner, EA, Schmitt, FA, Scheff, SW, Davis, GD, Keller, JN, Jicha, GA, Davis, D, Wang, W-X, Hartman, A, Katz, DG, and Markesbery WR, Human cerebral neuropathology of Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2008 Aug 22. [Epub ahead of print]

GA Jicha, E. Abner, FA Schmitt, GE Cooper, N. Stiles, R. Hamon, S. Carr, C.D. Smith, W.R. Markesbery. Clinical features of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) differ in the research and tertiary clinic settings. Dem Geriat Cog Dis, Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord 2008;26:187-192.

GA Jicha, JE Parisi, DW Dickson, R Cha, K Johnson, GE Smith, BF Boeve, RC Petersen, DS Knopman. Age and apoE associations with complex pathologic features in Alzheimer's disease. J Neurol Sci. 2008 Oct 15;273(1-2):34-9. Epub 2008 Jul 23.

Gold BT, Powell DK, Xuan L, Jicha GA, & Smith CD. Age-related slowing of task switching is associated with decreased integrity of frontoparietal white matter. Neurobiol Aging. 2008 May 19. [Epub ahead of print]

PT Nelson, E Abner, FA Schmitt, RJ Kryscio, GA  Jicha, CD Smith, DG Davis, JW Poduska, E Patel, MS Mendiondo, WR Markesbery. Modeling the association between 43 different clinical and pathological variables and the severity of cognitive impairment in a large autopsy cohort of elderly persons.  Brain Pathology, Nov 19, 2008 [E-Pub ahead of print]

Nelson PT, Jicha GA, Schmitt FA, Liu H, Davis DG, Mendiondo MS, Abner EL, Markesbery WR. Clinicopathologic correlations in a large Alzheimer disease center autopsy cohort: neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles "do count" when staging disease severity. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 66: 1136-1146, 2007.

Smith CD, Chebrolu H, Wekstein DR, Schmitt FA, Jicha GA, Cooper G, Markesbery WR. Brain structural alterations before mild cognitive impairment. Neurology 68: 1268-1273, 2007.

Dubois B, Feldman HH, Jacova C, Dekosky ST, Barberger-Gateau P, Cummings J, Delacourte A, Galasko D, Gauthier S, Jicha G, Meguro K, O'Brien J, Pasquier F, Robert P, Rossor M, Salloway S, Stern Y, Visser PJ, Scheltens P. Research criteria for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: revising the NINCDS-ADRDA criteria. Lancet Neurol 6: 734-746, 2007.