eLife: Heart disease causes early brain dysfunction and triples key Alzheimer's protein

The new study, published in the journal eLife, found that heart disease can cause a breakdown in a key brain function that connects brain activity and blood flow, meaning the same activity causes the brain to get less blood

This occurs before fat builds up in the blood vessels of the brain in people with heart disease (atherosclerosis), a precursor to dementia

The researchers also found that the combination of heart disease and a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's disease tripled the amount of beta-amyloid, a protein that forms and triggers Alzheimer's disease, and increased levels of an inflammatory gene (IL1) in the brain

Lead author of the study, Dr Osman Shabir, from the University of Sheffield's Institute for Neuroscience and Healthy Longevity, said: "Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia in the world and heart disease is Alzheimer's major risk factors

"We found that heart disease in midlife causes a breakdown in neurovascular coupling, an important mechanism in our brain that controls the amount of blood supplied to neurons

The team has since received a three-year grant from the British Heart Foundation to study the use of an arthritis drug targeting IL-1 to see if it can reverse or reduce brain dysfunction caused by heart disease

The team also found that brain injury also worsened cerebral blood flow regulation, supporting the observation that symptoms tend to worsen after an injury or fall

Journal Reference :

1. Osman Shabir, Ben Pendry, Llywelyn Lee, Beth Eyre, Paul S Sharp, Monica A Rebollar, David Drew, Clare Howarth, Paul R Heath, Stephen B Wharton, Sheila E Francis, Jason Berwick.