Alzheimer’s spreads like infection
They speak of things ‘spreading like cancer’, now they may say the same for Alzheimer’s disease. The findings of a new American study reveal Alzheimer’s disease is capable of spreading through the brain like an infection. In tests on mice, Columbia University Medical Centre researchers found the abnormal tau protein spreads, “jumping” from neuron to neuron.
They speak of things ‘spreading like cancer’, now they may say the same for Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings of a new American study reveal Alzheimer’s disease is capable of spreading through the brain like an infection.
In tests on mice, Columbia University Medical Centre researchers found the abnormal tau protein – a key feature of the disease – spreads through brain circuits in a pattern, “jumping” from neuron to neuron.
They hope the research, published last week, will contribute to the development of treatments to halt the progression of Alzheimer’s.
“The most effective approach may be to treat Alzheimer’s the way we treat cancer – through early detection and treatment, before it has a chance to spread,” Dr Scott Small, the study’s co-author, said.
“The best way to cure Alzheimer’s may be to identify and treat it when it is just beginning,” he added. “It is during this early stage that the disease will be most amenable to treatment. That is the exciting clinical promise down the road.”
Alzheimer’s is characterised by the accumulation of plaques and fibrous tangles – composed of abnormal tau – in brain cells called neurons.
Previous studies have also suggested the disease begins in the entorhinal cortex, which plays a key role in memory, before progressing to anatomically linked to higher brain regions.
The disease, which today cannot be prevented, cured or slowed, affects about 36 million people worldwide.
