Expanding growth factor therapy to AD will require consideration of relative concentrations of naturally occurring growth factors unique to each subject and state of dementia, delivery method, and determining growth factors to administer (i.e., VEGF, Ang1 or 2, FGF, ephrins, etc.), quantity/concentration of growth factors to deliver, and length of time of treatment (i.e., single dose, multiple low-level doses, etc.). The gene discussed is VEGFA; the disease is dementia.