![]() ![]() “Overall,” notes Diego Gomez-Nicola, an associate professor of neuroscience at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, “these studies add to a body of knowledge supporting the impact of inflammation on dementia, and provide promising targets for future clinical studies.The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a structural and functional barrier necessary for brain homeostasis, and it plays an important role in the realization of neural function and in protecting the brain from damage by circulating toxins and pathogens. “We now have two biomarkers that tell you exactly where the blood-brain barrier is leaking, so you can select patients for treatment and make decisions about how long you give the drug.”Įxperts commenting on the two studies generally welcome the findings but warn against jumping to the conclusion that they describe ways to reverse dementia in humans. There is also scope to develop the drug that they used as a way to repair a leaky blood-brain barrier to slow and perhaps even reverse some of the problems that it can cause. The researchers suggest that the two sets of findings offer two new biomarkers that could help doctors identify individuals who might have a blood-brain barrier problem: one using MRI (which can detect leaky barriers), and the other using EEG (which can detect abnormal brain rhythms). They found the same match in aged mice, mice prone to Alzheimer’s disease, and rats with induced epilepsy.īiomarkers for impaired blood-brain barriers In EEGs of people with epilepsy, they found that PSWEs that occurred between seizures matched areas of leaky blood-brain barrier. People with Alzheimer’s disease may frequently experience epileptic events, but they and their doctors are not necessarily aware of them.Īdvancing age is a risk factor for both Alzheimer’s and epilepsy, and experimental and clinical data support the idea of a link between the two conditions.įor the second study, the team analyzed EEG readings from people with Alzheimer’s disease and found an EEG signature for what they describe as “paroxysmal slow wave events (PSWEs).”įrom the EEGs, they saw how the rate of PSWEs seemed to match the level of cognitive impairment of the individuals. Kaufer and Friedman are also co-senior authors of another recent Science Translational Medicine study that took a closer look at inflammatory fog in leaky blood-brain barriers. The leakier the blood-brain barrier becomes, the easier it is for substances that cause inflammation to cross over from the bloodstream into brain tissue and damage cells. The findings should help scientists better understand the decline of brain functions involving inflammation that can accompany aging and conditions such as dementia.Īn increasing body of research - including imaging studies by co-senior study author Alon Friedman, of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and Dalhousie University in Canada - shows that the blood-brain barrier becomes less efficient with age. Kaufer explains that within days of abolishing the “inflammatory fog,” the aged brain starts to function more like a young brain. “But our new data tell a different story about why the aged brain is not functioning well: It is because of this ‘fog’ of inflammatory load,” she adds. “We tend to think about the aged brain in the same way we think about neurodegeneration: Age involves loss of function and dead cells,” says co-senior study author Daniela Kaufer, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. The researchers then developed and tested a drug that blocked the signaling protein, which goes by the name transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta).Īfter treatment with the drug, the mice showed fewer signs of brain inflammation and an improved ability to learn new tasks that matched the performance of much younger mice. The international team found that the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier activates a signaling protein in brain cells called astrocytes. In a recent Science Translational Medicine study, scientists describe how the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier can trigger brain inflammation and cognitive impairment in aging mice. The blood-brain barrier is a complex set of blood vessel characteristics that help shield the brain from potentially harmful substances in the bloodstream. Share on Pinterest New research looks at the decline of brain functions that accompanies aging.
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