Posted on September 21, 2021, 8:56 pm
“New wave of Alzheimer’s research” looks for clues in the liver
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) – In the race to better understand the causes of Alzheimer’s disease, a research team is studying the connection between the brain, gut and liver.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and affects around 50 million people worldwide. There is currently no way to reverse the condition and treatments focus on treating the symptoms. The main reason for this is that researchers still don’t know what exactly causes Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia.
Now, researchers from Duke University’s Alzheimers Disease Metabolomics Consortium (ADMC) in Durham, NC, and the Alzheimers Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) have collaborated to look for evidence of Alzheimer’s in a seemingly unlikely location: the liver.
The researchers decided to consider liver function – linked to Alzheimer’s disease – as the organ plays a role in the body’s metabolic processes. In their new study paper, which appears on the JAMA Network Open, the authors explain that recently, experts have increasingly recognized a strong link between Alzheimer’s disease and various forms of metabolic disorders.
“Metabolic activities in the liver determine the state of the metabolic display of the peripheral circulation”, explain the authors in the study.
“The evidence suggests that patients with Alzheimer’s disease have metabolic dysfunction,” they continue, adding that the “evidence suggests the role of the liver in the pathophysiological properties of [Alzheimer s disease]. “
In the current study, Prof. Kwangsik Nho – from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis – and colleagues analyzed blood samples and assessed the enzyme values that are associated with liver function. The blood samples were from 1,581 participants who had also agreed to have brain scans to look for changes that suggested the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
In addition, researchers also checked them for other signs of Alzheimer’s, including cognitive measurements, cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, brain atrophy, and beta-amyloid levels, a protein that forms sticky, toxic plaques in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease. In this way, the research team was able to identify connections between changes in liver function and markers of impaired cognitive functions in the brain.
“This study was a joint effort by ADNI, a 60-site study, and the ADMC. It represents the new wave of Alzheimer’s research and uses a broader systems approach that integrates central and peripheral biology, ”explains co-author Andrew Saykin.
“In this study, blood biomarkers that reflect liver function were linked to brain imaging and [cerebrospinal fluid] Markers related to Alzheimer’s disease. In our attempt to understand the disease and identify viable therapeutic targets, no stone must be left unturned, ”says Andrew Saykin. First author Prof. Nho calls this approach “a new paradigm for Alzheimer’s research”.
He argues that in the future, scientists may be able to identify different biomarkers of this disease in the blood, making diagnosis faster and easier.
“So far we’ve only focused on the brain. Our research shows that with blood biomarkers we can continue to focus on the brain, but can also find evidence of Alzheimer’s disease and improve our understanding of the body’s internal signals, ”says Nho.
The researchers argue that specialists should view the brain as part of a system that affects and is influenced by various mechanisms in the body in order to better understand the causes of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as to improve diagnosis and treatment.
“While we’ve focused for too long on studying the brain in isolation, we now need to study the brain as an organ that communicates and is connected to other organs that can support its function and contribute to its dysfunction,” says Study Co -Author Rima Kaddurah-Daouk.
“The concept is emerging that Alzheimer’s disease could be a systemic disease affecting multiple organs, including the liver,” she adds.
Going forward, the current knowledge and other related research could help perfect a more personalized approach to treating Alzheimer’s as precision medicine gains ground.
