Vascular dementia, a type of memory and thinking problem caused by damage to the brain’s small blood vessels, is a major health issue.
Yet it hasn’t received as much attention as Alzheimer’s disease, which is often linked to protein buildup in the brain. One researcher from The University of New Mexico (UNM) is working to change that.
Dr. Elaine Bearer, a professor in UNM’s School of Medicine, has published a new paper in the American Journal of Pathology proposing a better way to study and classify the different types of vascular dementia. Her goal is to help scientists better understand the disease and discover effective treatments.
Vascular dementia can be caused by conditions like high blood pressure, clogged arteries, and diabetes.
But Dr. Bearer also points to newer concerns—like the discovery of tiny bits of plastic, known as nano- and microplastics, in human brains. These plastics are becoming a worrying factor in brain disease, though much about them is still unknown.
“We’ve been flying blind,” Dr. Bearer said. “We haven’t fully defined the different kinds of vascular damage, so we haven’t known what we’re really treating. And we didn’t even know plastics were part of the problem because we couldn’t see them before.”
In her research, Dr. Bearer used special microscopes and stains to carefully examine brain tissue from people in New Mexico who had died with dementia.
She found damage in the small blood vessels and identified 10 different disease processes that can harm the brain by blocking oxygen and nutrients, causing leaks and inflammation, and reducing the brain’s ability to clear waste. These changes often lead to tiny strokes that damage brain cells.
Interestingly, many people who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s also showed signs of vascular problems. “In New Mexico, we suspect that about half of our Alzheimer’s patients also have small vessel disease,” Dr. Bearer said.
She believes that by clearly identifying and categorizing different forms of vascular dementia, doctors will be able to better understand how severe the disease is in both living patients and those who have passed away. This knowledge could help in finding better treatments—and possibly even a cure.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is now considering forming a group of experts to create new national guidelines for diagnosing and grading vascular dementia, something Dr. Bearer supports.
One of the most surprising parts of her research involves plastic. “Nanoplastics in the brain are a new concern,” she said. “All our current ideas about dementia may need to change now that we know this.”
Dr. Bearer found that people with dementia had more plastic particles in their brains than those without, and the amount of plastic seemed to match how bad the dementia was. These plastics were also linked to higher levels of brain inflammation.
This research builds on years of work with Dr. Gary Rosenberg, director of the UNM Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. In 2024, the NIH awarded the center a $21.7 million grant, which helped support Dr. Bearer’s study.
“Describing all these changes in detail is something new,” Dr. Bearer said. “I hope this paper will lead to working with other research centers to create clear guidelines for studying vascular dementia and understanding how tiny plastic particles might be hurting our brains.”
If you care about dementia, please read studies about Early heart rhythm problem linked to higher dementia risk and findings of Green leafy vegetables may help reduce Alzheimer’s risk.
For more about dementia, please read studies about Research shows an important cause of frontotemporal dementia and findings of New way to detect Lewy body disease early, a leading cause of dementia.
The study is published in the American Journal of Pathology.
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