Nearly 40,000 frozen blood samples from a major U.S. study on high blood pressure will be analyzed to help identify who is most at risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix is among the leading organizations participating in this research, which has received a $21.6 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The research aims to understand how hypertension may contribute to brain disease by identifying molecules in blood that signal early stages of Alzheimer’s and related dementias. This project is the first to obtain Alzheimer’s disease blood biomarkers from samples collected during a previous large-scale study on blood pressure goals, focusing specifically on outcomes like mild cognitive impairment and dementia.
“High blood pressure is one of the biggest modifiable risk factors for dementia, but we still don’t fully understand why,” said Jeremy Pruzin, MD, behavioral neurologist at Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and a principal investigator on the study. “We hope our findings will help identify which patients face the highest dementia risk and guide more personalized approaches to managing blood pressure.”
Researchers will use samples from the SPRINT trial, a nationwide study examining intensive blood pressure control. They plan to share their data with the broader scientific community to speed up discovery. The analysis could provide insight into subtle chemical signals indicating current or future brain health conditions.
Alzheimer’s disease is currently the most common cause of dementia, primarily affecting adults over 65 by disrupting memory and thinking abilities. Dementia can result either from protein buildup in the brain or problems with cerebral blood vessels. The team hopes that findings from this work may help delay or prevent such diseases for future generations.
Adam Bress, PharmD, professor at University of Utah Health and another principal investigator on the study, outlined key questions: “How does lowering blood pressure more intensively affect brain health? Does (hypertension treatment) affect brain health through pathways around Alzheimer’s disease — protein plaques and tangles — or is it through the blood vessels themselves? How does having Alzheimer’s pathology in your brain impact how we treat your high blood pressure?”
A new technology—a recently discovered blood biomarker—will be used to diagnose Alzheimer’s-related changes nearly as well as traditional PET scans or spinal fluid tests. Researchers will cross-reference these biomarkers with detailed health information to determine if factors like genetics or existing health conditions influence how effective hypertension treatments are at reducing dementia risk.
“The other thing that’s crucial about this grant, which is probably one of the biggest things, is we’re going to post all the data publicly,” Bress said. Data on five different biomarkers will be matched with clinical cognitive outcomes and dementia diagnoses to create a resource for future studies. “This is going to be one of the largest repositories of its kind in the world.”
Banner will receive nearly $17.8 million out of the total NIH grant for its role in this project.
More information about this initiative can be found at https://healthcare.utah.edu/newsroom/news/2025/09/216m-grant-powers-research-understand-link-between-high-blood-pressure.
