L'brain aging, with the progressive decrease in new neurons, which leads to Alzheimer's disease, can be slowed down, and indeed the trend can be reversed by promoting a real "rejuvenation". This is what was discovered by a team of Italian researchers from the Ebri Institute, who have ascertained that the birth of new neurons in the adult brain (neurogenesis) is reduced in a very early phase of Alzheimer's disease. This alteration is caused by the accumulation in the brain stem cells of highly toxic aggregates of the beta Amyloid protein, called A-beta oligomers. The team managed to neutralize the A-beta oligomers in the brain of a mouse suffering from Alzheimer's by introducing the A13 antibody into the brain stem cells, reactivating the birth of new neurons and thus rejuvenating the brain. In particular, the researchers demonstrated how the strategy developed in the Ebri laboratories allows for the re-establishment of correct neurogenesis in the mouse model studied, recovering 80% of the defects caused by Alzheimer's disease in the initial phase. The entirely Italian study, coordinated by Antonino Cattaneo, Giovanni Meli and Raffaella Scardigli, at the Ebri Rita Levi-Montalcini Foundation, in collaboration with the CNR, the Scuola Normale Superiore and the Department of Biology of the University of Roma Tre, was recently published in the journal Cell Death and Differentiation. “The importance of this research is twofold: on the one hand – explain Scardigli and Meli – we demonstrate that the decrease in neurogenesis anticipates the typical pathological signs of Alzheimer's, and could therefore contribute to promptly identifying the onset of the disease in a very early phase; on the other hand, we have also observed in vivo, in the mouse brain, the effectiveness of our antibody in neutralizing A-beta oligomers right inside the neurons”. For the first time, in fact, the individual “toxic bricks” that will form the extracellular plaques of A-beta (the current therapeutic target of Alzheimer's disease) have been intercepted and neutralized at birth, before they cause irreversible neuronal damage. This research therefore lays the foundation for the development of new strategies useful for the diagnosis and therapy of this neurodegenerative disease. "Being able to monitor neurogenesis in the adult population will offer a potential diagnostic tool in the future to signal the onset of Alzheimer's at a very early stage, that is, when the disease is clinically pre-symptomatic. Furthermore - concludes Cattaneo - the therapeutic use of the A13 antibody will allow us to neutralize A-beta oligomers inside neurons, where they first form, thus targeting the earliest possible event in the evolution of the disease".
Article published on November 25, 2019 - 20:44
