Eleanor Drummond

The aim of this study was to uncover the protein differences that are responsible for selective vulnerability in Alzheimer’s disease. That is, why some brain regions are more susceptible to the development of neuropathology and neuron death in Alzheimer’s disease than others. This is important because these protein differences may help explain the cause of Alzheimer’s disease and may be new potential drug targets or biomarkers.

I used a technique called proteomics to complete the most comprehensive study of the protein differences that are present in regions of the human brain that are selectively vulnerable or resistant in Alzheimer’s disease. I have examined these protein differences in human brain tissue from donors who were at the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease including preclinical Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment. 

I also identified the proteins that are selectively enriched in the neuropathological features that define Alzheimer’s disease – amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. And I have determined which of these proteins directly interact with phosphorylated tau, which is the main protein present in neurofibrillary tangles. Together, my results have identified many new potential drug targets and biomarkers of disease. The most promising of these will be directly examined in future studies which aim to determine how these novel proteins are involved in Alzheimer’s disease. 

Drummond E, Kavanagh T, Pires G, Ariza M, Kanshin E, Nayak S, Faustin A, Berdah V, Ueberheide B, Wisniewski T (2021) The amyloid plaque proteome in early onset Alzheimer’s disease and Down syndrome. Molecular Neurodegeneration (submitted 5/7/21; IF = 14.2)

Pires G, Ueberheide B, Wisniewski T, Drummond E (2021) The Use of Affinity Purification-Mass Spectrometry to Identify Phosphorylated Tau Interactors in Alzheimer’s disease, Methods in Molecular Biology (submitted 18/5/21)

Pires G and Drummond E (2020) It takes more than tau to tangle: Using proteomics to determine how phosphorylated tau mediates toxicity in neurodegenerative diseases. Neural Regeneration Research. (Accepted 18/12/20)

Wisniewski T and Drummond E (2020) ApoE-Amyloid Interaction: Therapeutic Targets. Neurobiology of Disease. 138:104784. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2020.104784 (IF = 5.227)

Drummond E, Pires G, MacMurray C, Askenazi M, Nayak S, Bourdon M, Safar JG, Ueberheide B, Wisniewski T (2020) Phosphorylated Tau Interactome in the Human Alzheimer’s Disease Brain. Brain 143(9):2803-2817 (IF = 11.337)

Pires G, McElligott S, Drusinsky S, Halliday G, Potier MC, Wisniewski T, Drummond E (2019) Secernin-1 is a novel phosphorylated tau binding protein that accumulates in Alzheimer's disease and not in other tauopathies. Acta Neuropathological Communications, 7(1):195 (IF = 5.930)

Drummond E, Wisniewski T (2019) Using Proteomics to Understand Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis. In: Alzheimer’s Disease. Wisniewski T, editor. Chapter 3: pg 37-51

Wisniewski T and Drummond E (2019) Future Horizons in Alzheimer’s Disease Research. In: Molecular Biology of Neurodegenerative Diseases: Visions for the Future. Teplow D, editor. Chapter 12; p223-241

At the time of award, Dr Drummond was the Bluesand Research Fellow at the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney.