Unraveling Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s disease has long been known to cause severe problems with memory and thinking in the elderly.
But what if it’s not just a disease of old age, but also one that begins to take shape in the very earliest stages of life – in the embryo?
A new study led by Khadijeh Shabani and her colleagues from the Brain Development team at Paris Brain Institute suggests just that.
They found that the amyloid precursor protein (APP), a molecule that plays a role in Alzheimer’s disease, also plays a crucial role in the development of the brain in the womb.
APP: A Pivotal Protein in Neurodevelopment
APP is a protein that is made in large amounts in the brain while it is developing. Shabani and her team found that APP puts a hold on the development of nerve cells in the brain, a process known as neurogenesis.
This delay allows the nerve cells to stay as stem cells for longer, a feature that is particularly unique to humans.
Disrupting the Delicate Balance
But what if something upsets this balance? Could that lead to problems later in life? It’s a tantalizing possibility.
The researchers found that when they turned off the APP gene in lab-grown human brain cells, the cells rushed to develop into nerve cells, skipping the period of time they would normally remain as stem cells.
The Potential Link to Alzheimer’s Disease
The exciting – and potentially alarming – aspect of these findings is that APP is also involved in Alzheimer’s disease.
When APP is broken down in the brain, it forms smaller pieces, some of which are thought to cause the damage seen in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.
The researchers suggest that Alzheimer’s might not just be a disease of old age, but also a disease of brain development.
According to this theory, if the finely-tuned process of neurogenesis goes wrong, perhaps because of an issue with APP, it might set up the brain for Alzheimer’s disease later in life.
Implications and Future Research
Although this study opens up an exciting new avenue of research into Alzheimer’s disease, more work is needed to confirm these findings and understand the implications fully.
If confirmed, this research could significantly shift our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and potentially offer new avenues for prevention and treatment.
Moreover, the potential connection between APP and Alzheimer’s disease emphasizes the intricate complexity of the brain and how delicate the process of its development is.
It’s a reminder of the fundamental interconnectedness of life – how our health in old age might be determined in part by events that happen even before we are born.
If you care about Alzheimer’s, please read studies about how Alzheimer’s attacks the brain, and how the Mediterranean diet could protect your brain health.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies that cranberries could help boost memory, and many older people have this non-Alzheimer’s dementia.
The study was published in Science Advances.
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