The Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), Chennai, the Centre for Brain Research (CBR) at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) have joined hands to conduct research on the link between diabetes and brain health.
On Saturday, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed for the collaboration. According to a press release, the collaboration brings together experts in the fields of diabetes, neuroscience, and dementia to understand how metabolic disorders, such as diabetes, influence cognitive decline and neurological diseases, including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
The partnership aims at facilitating large-scale studies, data exchange, and translational research to improve early detection and prevention strategies.
Citing a 2019 study, V. Mohan, chairman, MDRF, said that diabetes confers a 1.25- to 1.91-fold excess risk for cognitive disorders (cognitive impairment and dementia), and individuals with prediabetes also have a higher risk of developing dementia. There is a vicious cycle between diabetes and dementia.
Less involvement in diabetes self-care and monitoring, increased likelihood of severe hypoglycemia, major cardiovascular events and death, and heightened risk of falls are the effects that cognitive impairment have on the management of diabetes, he added.
“Screening for dementia is not done in diabetes clinics. We started it last year for patients aged above 60,” he said. Cognitive impairment or dementia is often undiagnosed in those with diabetes, he said, stressing on the need for routine screening in diabetes clinics.
According to a press release, R.M. Anjana, president, MDRF, said diabetes was increasingly being recognised as a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia, and through the partnership, the strength of multi-disciplinary expertise and diverse datasets to uncover early markers of brain ageing in people with diabetes would be leveraged.
K.V.S. Hari, director, CBR, said the centre wanted to predict the onset of cognitive decline on the basis of robust risk scores, diagnostics and trajectory trackers, and the interventions could be pharmacological, lifestyle-based and apps/devices.
Siddharthan Chandran, Director and Chief Executive, UK DRI, said their vision was healthy brain ageing for all. He said that metabolic diseases affect the brain, and the brain, in turn, affects metabolic diseases, which is why an integrated approach makes sense.
Henrik Zetterberg, head, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, University of Gothenburg, and Group Leader, UK DRI at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, said the most common dementia causing diseases were Alzheimer’s and cerebrovascular disease. They have developed biomarkers to indicate changes in the brain. The aim is to develop a global, accessible and affordable biomarker panel of relevance to most aspects of neurodegenerative disease, he said.
Elaborating on the Healthy Ageing Clinic, S. Uthra, Senior Scientist, MDRF, said any patient aged above 60 years was given a simple questionnaire that assessed factors, including their memory. Citing data from their centre, she said the percentage of cognitive decline increased with age. “Cognitive health should be an integral part of holistic diabetes care,” she added.
Published – October 26, 2025 05:30 am IST
