Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 18 submissions in the queue.
posted by janrinok on Monday January 08 2018, @09:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the every-step-we-take dept.

Alzheimer's protein may spread like an infection, human brain scans suggest

For the first time, scientists have produced evidence in living humans that the protein tau, which mars the brain in Alzheimer's disease, spreads from neuron to neuron. Although such movement wasn't directly observed, the finding may illuminate how neurodegeneration occurs in the devastating illness, and it could provide new ideas for stemming the brain damage that robs so many of memory and cognition.

[...] Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom combined two brain imaging techniques, functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, in 17 Alzheimer's patients to map both the buildup of tau and their brains' functional connectivity—that is, how spatially separated brain regions communicate with each other. Strikingly, they found the largest concentrations of the damaging tau protein in brain regions heavily wired to others, suggesting that tau may spread in a way analogous to influenza during an epidemic, when people with the most social contacts will be at greatest risk of catching the disease.

The research team says this pattern, described yesterday in Brain [open, DOI: 10.1093/brain/awx347] [DX], supports something known as the "transneuronal spread" hypothesis for Alzheimer's disease, which had previously been demonstrated in mice but not people. "We come down quite strongly in favor of the idea that tau is starting in one place and moving across neurons and synapses to other places," says clinical neurologist Thomas Cope, one of the study's authors. "That has never before been shown in humans. That's very exciting." Because the researchers looked at Alzheimer's patients with a range of disease severity, they were also able to demonstrate that, when tau accumulation was higher, brain regions were on the whole less connected. The strength of connections also decreased, and connections were increasingly random.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by optotronic on Tuesday January 09 2018, @02:58AM (4 children)

    by optotronic (4285) on Tuesday January 09 2018, @02:58AM (#619844)

    "We come down quite strongly in favor of the idea that tau is starting in one place and moving across neurons and synapses to other places," says clinical neurologist Thomas Cope, one of the study's authors.

    If this is the case, wouldn't it be theoretically possible to detect it early and cut it out like brain cancer? Better odds of survival than doing nothing, perhaps.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday January 09 2018, @03:12AM (3 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday January 09 2018, @03:12AM (#619850)

    Instead of cutting, I'd recommend MRI monitored fiber optic delivered laser thermal ablation... yes, that's a thing, and it's damned good at killing specifically targeted brain tissue.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @03:22AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @03:22AM (#619853)

      yes, that's a thing, and it's damned good at killing specifically targeted brain tissue.

      Why, just like a bullet, only more fancily expensive.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @06:00AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @06:00AM (#619880)

        Yes, I remember when they livestreamed JFK's brain surgery.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @03:13PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @03:13PM (#620027)

          You are so old then ... maybe you don't really remember, but instead already have Alzheimer's?