A UC San Francisco study that examined the progression of FTD shows promise in identifying how the disease spreads in the brain.

In the study, published October 14 in Neuron, researchers used maps of brain connections to predict the advancement of neurodegeneration in individual persons diagnosed with FTD. The results add to growing evidence that dementia spreads through synaptic connections between established brain networks.

While the research is not yet ready for clinical use, it opens new doors to identifying methods to slow or stop the progression of FTD and could help inform potential therapies entering clinical trials.

The study’s senior author, William Seeley, MD, was the recipient of an Accelerating Drug Discovery Grant from AFTD and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation in 2011 – the same year the MacArthur Foundation awarded him one of its “Genius Grants.”