Babraham: New understanding of neural decline in Alzheimer’s disease

Research lead

Researchers at the Babraham Institute near Cambridge, UK, working with colleagues in Hungary and Germany, have shown that in the development of Alzheimer’s disease neurons first lose the ability to communicate with each other before deteriorating further, a finding which they say opens up new avenues to try and combat the disease.

“We've all experienced how useless a computer is without broadband,” said Michael Coleman, project leader. The same is true for a neuron when its communications channels axons and dendrites are damaged. In Alzheimer’s disease axons swell dramatically, ballooning to 10 or 20 times their normal diameter. These swellings disrupt transport but not, it seems, completely.

Enough material gets through the swellings to keep more distant parts of the axon alive for at least several months, and probably for a year or more. This is important because it suggests a successful therapy applied during this early period may not only halt the symptoms, but allow a degree of functional recovery.

“We’ve been able to look at whole nerve cells affected by Alzheimer’s,” said Coleman. “For the first time we have shown that supporting parts of nerve cells are alive, and we can now learn how to intervene to recover connections.”

“This is very important for treatment because in normal adult life, nerve cell connections constantly disappear and reform, but can only do so if the supporting parts of the cell remain. Our results suggest a time window in which damaged connections between brain cells could recover under the right conditions.”