International Team Launches Landmark Study on the Link Between Heart Health and Dementia
09/15/2025
An international team of researchers has received $1 million in Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funding to launch one of the largest multinational studies to date examining how cardiovascular health influences the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
The MARVEL Research Team (Multinational Assessment of Risk factors and Vascular disease in Elders with dementias using Longitudinal cohort studies), a collaboration of scientists from Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Hong Kong, will investigate the role of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and related risk factors in the onset and progression of dementia among community-dwelling older adults.
“Both cardiovascular disease and dementia are among the most pressing health challenges facing aging populations worldwide,” said Amy Hsu, PhD, the study’s principal investigator and Chair in Primary Health Care Dementia Research at Bruyère Health Research Institute. “By bringing together diverse population-level data and expertise across countries, this project will provide new insights into how heart health shapes brain health, and how we can improve prevention and care.”
Thanks to the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA) Team Grant, the MARVEL team will conduct the largest multinational epidemiologic studies to date on the association between CVD and dementia and assess the ability of blood-based biomarkers in predicting dementia.
“We know that symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease caused solely by plaques and tangles is rare in older adults. Cardiovascular conditions are major risk factors for dementia and can accelerate Alzheimer’s progression,” said Dr. Davide Vetrano, geriatrician and associate professor at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. “With no cure available, prevention is key. The MARVEL project will help clarify the link between heart health and dementia, paving the way for new preventive strategies.”
The team’s focus will be to:
- Investigate the incidence and prevalence of CVD and development of cardiovascular multimorbidity over the life course in adults aged 55 years and older with and without dementia.
- Explore the association between blood-based biomarkers and dementia and assess the utility of these biomarkers in predicting incident dementia.
- Develop and validate prediction models for incident dementia, while exploring how social and environmental determinants of health may vary in their contribution to dementia risk across these countries.
- Create web-based health calculators and engage end-users throughout the development process to identify barriers and enablers to using a web-based tool among target populations.
The MARVEL project represents a significant step forward in international collaboration in brain-heart research, strengthening infrastructure for nationwide population-level data analysis, and addressing two of the greatest public health challenges of our time.