Clemson University partnered with Prisma Health to purchase a new 3-tesla functional MRI machine to conduct research and treat patients at Prisma Health Oconee Memorial Hospital. (Provided by Clemson University)
COLUMBIA — South Carolina colleges continue their efforts to improve the detention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in the state – this time with a new, powerful MRI machine in rural Oconee County.
The Alzheimer’s Association predicts by next year some 120,000 South Carolinians will be living with Alzheimer’s disease or some other type of dementia.
To help, Clemson University partnered with Prisma Health to purchase a new 3-tesla functional MRI machine to conduct research and treat patients at Prisma Health Oconee Memorial Hospital in Seneca, in the state’s northwestern corner.
Tesla is a scientific term for the strength of the magnet used to produce scans of the brain. The larger the magnet, the more detailed the scans.
By comparison, most hospital MRI machines are just 1.5-tesla.
The machine is also set up in a way that allows doctors to ask patients to perform different tasks during the scan and measures the tiny changes in blood flow that take place with each task as different parts of the brain are working, said Lesley Ross, director of Clemson’s Institute for Engaged Aging.
The Institute is already recruiting participants for a pair of clinical trials testing the use of exercises designed to improve brain health and prevent of slow progression of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
“This magnet is going to enable us to continue that work and really take it to the next level,” Ross said.
The machine also fits into a larger statewide effort, announced in September 2023, between Clemson, the Medical University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina to form a federally recognized Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
The Legislature set aside $10 million in funding in 2023 for staff. If the schools are successful in gaining the designation, the state would then be eligible for federal grant funding from the National Institute on Aging to further support research.
“I think it was fortuitous these things kind of happened in parallel,” said Julius Fridriksson, vice president of research at USC. “The timing is just terrific.”
USC is in the process of establishing a statewide Brain Health Network, with a main clinic in Columbia and satellite clinics in more rural areas, including at Oconee Memorial Hospital. The goal of the network is to give rural residents the chance to participate in clinical trials not previously available to them in their hometowns. The network will be able to utilize the new MRI machine in Oconee in addition to its own 3-tesla and ultra-powerful 7-tesla machines in Columbia.
USC building $30M brain health center for Alzheimer’s, dementia treatment
“I think we’re making great strides, and we’re investing where we should be investing,” Ross said.
In addition to Clemson and USC’s MRI machines, MUSC is purchasing new equipment for analyzing a person’s genetics and biomarkers that may indicate a risk for Alzheimer’s or dementia.
But Ross said efforts go beyond the equipment; it’s also about attracting more brain doctors to the state.
South Carolina is one of 20 states deemed a “neurology desert,” meaning there are not enough neurologists to meet demand. The opportunity to both treat patients and participate in research is a draw for these professionals, Ross said.
Meanwhile, researchers at each of the state’s three research universities have their own specializations when it comes to Alzheimer’s research.
At USC, that includes topics such as the intersection of Alzheimer’s and cardiac disease and the factors that contribute to Alzheimer’s in minority populations.
MUSC is home to the Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Neuropathology Laboratory, founded in 2009 by the family of the former South Carolina state senator, congressman and two-term governor who died in December 2005 with Alzheimer’s disease, four years after announcing the diagnosis.
The lab collects donor brain tissue from those with neurological disorders to study the rate and cause of these diseases.
One focus of the federally-recognized Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center would be to ensure researchers at all three institutions follow uniform protocols when collecting brain imagery so that the imagery might be used across multiple studies.
“Brain aging and brain health is a huge area,” Fridriksson said. “There’s so much to do. Dementia isn’t a single thing but a constellation of disorders. Nobody is going to crack this by themselves.”