![Professor Patrick Kehoe](https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/files/317355524/Screenshot_2022_04_04_at_10.21.40.png)
Professor Patrick Kehoe
B.Sc.(Dub.), Ph.D.(Wales)
Current positions
Gestetner Professor of Translational Dementia Research
Bristol Medical School (THS)
Contact
Press and media
Many of our academics speak to the media as experts in their field of research. If you are a journalist, please contact the University’s Media and PR Team:
Research interests
As Gestetner Professor of Translational Dementia Research, I jointly head (with Professor Seth Love), the Dementia Research Group in Bristol Medical School: Translational Health Sciences, at the University of Bristol.
I gained a Joint Honours BSc in Pharmacology and Molecular Genetics from University College Dublin (Ireland) and my PhD on the Molecular Genetics of Alzheimer’s disease from Cardiff University (UK). Until recentlty I was a member of the Research Strategy Council for the UK Alzheimer’s Society, and current sit on the Executive Committees of the European Alzheimer’s disease Consortium (EADC) and the European Alzheimer's Dementia Biobank (EADB). To date I have contributed to approximately 200 publications.
My main research interest for over twenty years has investigated mechanisms that may underlie the widely acknowledged, but still poorly understood, association between hypertension and blood pressure regulation with respect to the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other dementias. Of particular interest is the role of the renin angiotensin system (RAS) in the pathology of AD and related neurodegenerative diseases, a topic of interest first started during my PhD work where I discovered variation in the ACE gene to be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, which set me on my current research path.
Over the last 15 years, the work of my group and that from work with valuable colleagues in rewarding collaborations to investigate the role of RAS in AD has helped to unveil the prominence and importance of RAS in a number of pathological processes in AD. In doing so it provides some way of explaining the longheld recognition but limited understanding of associations between blood pressure regulation and dysfunction and the development and progression of dementia, particularly AD. The RAS is increasingly recognised for having interactions with many of the pathological pathways recognised in AD including interference with cerebral blood flow, inflammation, neurotransmitter imbalances as well as hypoxia and oxidative stress. Our research has now informed the basis of a number of drug repurposing clinical trials of RAS-acting drugs in Alzheimer's disease, one of the largest of which, that I lead as Chief Investigator, is a multi-site clinical trial (RADAR) of a RAS-acting drug losartan in Alzheimer’s disease, that will complete in Summer 2019.
My other areas of interest include the aetiology of various forms of Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI). We are currently undertaking a large international collaborative project to try and identify genetic risk factors for VCI, potential synergies with genetic risk factors for stroke, but also to undertake research to harmonise the conceptualisation and classification of different forms of VCI.
The Dementia Research Group has a multidisciplinary and applied approach to the investigation of the neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. This includes the use of genomic and various proteomic/metabolomic approaches further supported by additional molecular biological, cell culture in conjunction with histological and immunohistochemical approaches that are largely underpinned by tissue from the South West Dementia Brain Bank (SWDBB) or Brains for Dementia Research. Our focus is to ensure effective translation of pre-clinical research findings into meaningful outcomes such as the identification of new therapeutic targets to be tested in clinical trials, or biomarkers that may inform future research and/or clinical applications
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Building on Brains for Dementia Research (BDR): A UK Nervous Tissue Network (UKNTN) for the Twenty-first Century - Richard Cain MRC tissue banking
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (THS)Dates
01/10/2022 to 30/09/2025
EME: Reducing pathology in Alzheimer's Disease through Angiotensin TaRgeting The RADAR Trial
Principal Investigator
Description
Alzheimer's disease profoundly affects memory and brain function in older individuals. The disease starts slowly and worsens to the extent that people eventually need 24-hour care - a heart-breaking, exhausting…Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (THS)Dates
01/03/2013 to 31/07/2019
Thesis supervisions
Dysregulation of microRNAs in dementia
Supervisors
The Utility of Caffeine as an Attentional Enhancer
Supervisors
Exploring the role of the renin angiotensin system in Alzheimer’s disease - investigations into genetic variations and neuropathology
Supervisors
New uses for old drugs
Supervisors
Investigations of the classical and non-classical axis of the renin angiotensin system in dementia
Supervisors
The Plasminogen System in Alzheimer's Disease
Supervisors
Age-associated changes in the renin-angiotensin system
Supervisors
Neuroimmunological basis of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
01/01/2024Altered Gene Expression Within the Renin–Angiotensin System in Normal Aging and Dementia
Journals of Gerontology, Series A
Decentralized clinical trials for medications to reduce the risk of dementia
Alzheimer's and Dementia
Dysregulation of the renin-angiotensin system in vascular dementia
Brain Pathology
sPDGFRβ and neuroinflammation are associated with AD biomarkers and differ by race
Alzheimer's and Dementia
Age-related reduction in brain ACE-2 is not exacerbated by Alzheimer's disease pathology in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease
Aging Brain