Web Desk(November 1, 2017): Alzheimer’s disease is usually described as a degenerative neurological condition, one that is commonly associated with memory loss and confusion.
A new discovery could change the way scientists think about where Alzheimer’s disease originates in the body.
It has long been believed that Alzheimer’s disease, the leading cause of dementia, begins in the brain.
But a new study by researchers found that the neurodegenerative disease could actually begin elsewhere in the body.
It showed how toxic amyloid-beta proteins could be targeted in the kidney or liver to eliminate the protein from the blood before it ever reaches the brain.
Amyloid-beta is also found in blood platelets, blood vessels and muscles, along with being a precursor protein in other organs.
In patients with Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid-beta proteins can form clumps or plaques that kill brain cells.
They used parabiosis on two groups of mice, one that did not have Alzheimer’s disease and mice modified to carry a mutant human gene to produce high levels of amyloid-beta leading to Alzheimer’s disease.
“That might allow more amyloid beta to infiltrate the brain, supplementing what is produced by the brain itself and accelerating the deterioration.
Alzheimer’s disease is clearly a disease of the brain, but we need to pay attention to the whole body to understand where it comes from, and how to stop it.”
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