Predisposed to Decay

The memory loss, confusion and diminished cognitive function experienced by Alzheimer’s disease patients is the result of progressive neurodegeneration, which itself is linked to the accumulation of misfolded proteins and inflammation in the brain. Despite extensive research, the primary cause of the disease remains unknown, but recent studies reveal Alzheimer’s patients’ brain cells may be fundamentally different to those of similarly aged healthy individuals. Neurons derived from patient stem cells, like the green-stained cells shown, are more prone to age-related deterioration, or senescence, than those from healthy people, it was discovered, and this senescence causes the cells to release pro-inflammatory factors. The increased occurrence of senescence was also seen in postmortem brains. Because anti-senescence drugs are already used to treat some other inflammatory conditions, the hope is that such drugs, if capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, might help to lower inflammation and degeneration in the Alzheimer’s brain too.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

Writer

Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

Website

• Image from work by Joseph R Herdy and colleagues
• Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Cell Stem Cell, December 2022