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New research from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) found that a blood test that could be used to predict the risk of Alzheimer’s disease for up to 3.5 years before clinical diagnosis.
The findings published in the journal Brainsupport the idea that human blood components can modulate the formation of new brain cells.
That process is called neurogenesis and it occurs in an important part of the brain called the hippocampus that is involved in learning and memory.
They explain that although Alzheimer’s disease affects the formation of new brain cells in the hippocampus during the early stages of the disease, previous studies have only been able to study neurogenesis in its later stages through autopsies.
To understand this, the researchers collected blood samples over several years from 56 people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition in which you begin to experience a worsening of memory or cognitive ability.
While not all people who experience MCI go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease, those with the condition progress to a diagnosis at a much higher rate than the general population.
In the research, of the 56 study participants, 36 received a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
“In our study, we treated brain cells with blood taken from people with MCI, exploring how those cells changed in response to blood as Alzheimer’s disease progressedsaid Dr. Aleksandra Maruszak, one of the co-first authors of the King’s IoPPN study.
key discoveries
Blood samples collected from participants over the years who subsequently deteriorated and developed Alzheimer’s disease, promoted a decrease in cell growth and division and an increase in apoptotic cell death (the process by which cells cells are programmed to die).
However, the researchers noted that these samples also increased the conversion of immature brain cells into hippocampal neurons.
Although the underlying reasons for the increased neurogenesis remain unclear, researchers theorize that it may be an early compensatory mechanism for neurodegeneration (loss of brain cells) experienced by those who develop Alzheimer’s disease.
Furthermore, these findings could present an opportunity to better understand the changes that the brain goes through in the early stages of degenerative disease.
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