Nat Neuro: immune cells blocking brain capillaries - the culprit in Alzheimer 's?

February 14, 2019 / BIOON / - by finding out the culprit of brain blood flow reduction in Alzheimer's patients, bioengineers from Cornell University may have found a new way to treat this disease Photo source: Nature Neuroscience you know that when you squat for a long time and stand up suddenly, you will feel dizzy, because the blood flow in the brain has suddenly decreased by about 30% Now imagine how it would feel to live in this blood flow condition every minute of every day? People with Alzheimer's have to think about it Scientists have found a decrease in cerebral blood flow in Alzheimer's patients decades ago, but the exact relationship between this phenomenon and cognitive impairment is unclear "People may slowly adapt to this decrease in blood flow, so they don't always feel dizzy in their daily lives, but there is definite evidence that it impairs cognitive function." Said Chris Schaffer, associate professor of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University A new study from the Joint Laboratory of Schaffer and associate professor nozomi Nishimura offers an explanation for this sudden decrease in blood flow: it's because white blood cells block the smallest capillaries in the brain Although only a small part of capillaries are blocked, each blocked blood vessel can not pass through the blood flow, and the final effect is magnified, resulting in the decrease of the total blood flow Their article "neutral attention in brain captures reduces critical blood flow and improves memory function in Alzheimer's disease mouse models" was recently published in nature neuroscience Schaffer said the paper is the result of their research data and analysis over the past decade It began in a study years ago in which Nishimura tried to block capillaries by placing blood clots in the brains of Alzheimer's mice to see what happened next "It turns out that these plaques are always there." She said "To a certain extent, this has reversed the direction of research - because this phenomenon has always existed." Recent studies have shown that cerebral blood flow reduction is one of the earliest detectable symptoms of dementia "We have now found a cellular mechanism that causes reduced cerebral blood flow in Alzheimer's because neutrophils block capillaries." Schaffer said "We also found that when we inhibited this mechanism, cerebral blood flow increased, and the increased cerebral blood flow immediately repaired the cognitive performance of mice Now that we know the cellular mechanism, the search for drugs or therapies to treat this disease has narrowed down a lot " The team has found more than 20 FDA approved drugs with the potential to treat dementia, and is screening them in Alzheimer's mice Schaffer said he was extremely optimistic that if the human body had the same mechanism, the research would be a revolutionary breakthrough for Alzheimer's patients Reference materials: Jean C Cruz Hern á ndez et al, nuclear advice in brain capabilities reduces critical blood flow and improves memory function in Alzheimer's disease mouse models, Nature Neuroscience (2019) Doi: 10.1038/s41593-018-0329-4