AUGUSTA, Ga. () – A doctor at the Dental College of Georgia has been awarded a grant to continue research on the connection between gum disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

The $2.8 million competitive grant was awarded to Dr. Ranya El Sayed by the National Institute of Aging.

Dr. El Sayed said there is a strong relationship between gum disease and Alzheimer’s disease, which led to the question – how does this happen and is there a cause-and-effect relationship?

El Sayed said, “During periodontal infection in the gums, the immune cells release small particles that are called exosomes. These exosomes are capable of traveling through the blood stream to cross the blood brain barrier and when they enter the blood brain barrier, their taken up by the immune cells of the brain which are called microglia cells and this causes neuroinflammation and inflammation of the brain.” 

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, nearly 7 million Americans are living with the disease, by 2050 that number is projected to reach almost 13 million.

Dr. Babak Baban, Professor and Associate Dean of Research for Dental College of Georgia, says it’s an honor to have their research be noticed and appreciated by such a large organization.

“A topic like this which can secure the competitive funding really at the national level, that means a lot, that speaks for itself that our faculty and our researchers are basically discovering the innovative ways to improve our health quality and our life quality in general.” Dr. Baban said.

Over the course of her research, Dr. El Sayed says the most fascinating thing she learned was how interconnected the brain and mouth truly are.

She said Alzheimer’s is such a devastating disease and hopes their findings will impact people in the future.

She said, “We are still working on it, we have very promising data from human data, mice data, and that we are still working on it, there is a lot more to answer and I’m very optimistic we are going to find something by the end of the research period.” 

She continued to say, “If we treat the root cause from the beginning, if we are able to raise awareness in Alzheimer’s patients or in the early stages, or elderly patients or the whole population in general to take care of their teeth and do the maintenance visits, the routine dental visits, we can eliminate the problem, maybe.” 

Dr. El Sayed’s team has been researching this correlation for the past 3 and a half years and this grant will allow them to continue their research for the next 5 years.