Alzheimer’s could be treated with a whole blood exchange

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A therapy to treat Alzheimer’s that consists of a blood exchange reduces the accumulation of beta amyloid in the brain associated with this dementia and manages to improve memory in mice with the disease.

Alzheimer’s could be treated with a whole blood exchange

One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease is the buildup of amyloid beta protein in the brain. And one of the challenges scientists face in order to prevent or delay the onset of this type of dementia is that in order to eliminate these deposits of toxic substances, therapeutic agents would have to be administered through the brain’s blood-brain barrier, a system that It is responsible for protecting this organ against foreign substances but, in this case, makes it difficult to treat Alzheimer’s.

A new study has now discovered a possible way around this problem. This is a novel therapy that consists of exchanging the blood of mice that had amyloid precursor proteins that cause Alzheimer’s, replacing it completely with blood from healthy mice of the same genetic origin. These findings have been published in Molecular Psychiatry.

The results of this research provide a “proof of concept for the use of technologies commonly used in medical practice, such as plasmapheresis or blood dialysis, to ‘clean’ the blood of patients with Alzheimer’s, reducing the accumulation of toxic substances in the brain”, said Dr. Claudio Soto, from the McGovern School of Medicine at UTHealth Houston (USA). “This approach has the advantage that the disease can be treated in the circulation rather than in the brain.”

Treat Alzheimer’s through blood circulation

Dr. Soto’s team had carried out previous studies that had revealed that the misfolding, aggregation and accumulation of amyloid beta proteins in the brain play a determining role in Alzheimer’s. Due to this, an intervention aimed at preventing and eliminating misfolded protein aggregates is considered a treatment that can be effective in fighting this neurodegenerative disease.

“Cleaning the blood of Alzheimer’s patients, reducing the accumulation of toxic substances in the brain, has the advantage that the disease can be treated in the circulation instead of in the brain”

These scientists verified with their investigations that the manipulation of the circulating components in Alzheimer’s disease could be the key to solve this problem. “The blood vessels of the brain are classically considered the body’s most impermeable barrier,” said researcher Akihiko Urayama.

After performing numerous blood transfusions, the researchers found that the development of amyloid plaques in the brain of a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s was reduced by between 40% and 80%. And that this reduction also led to an improvement in spatial memory performance in aged mice with amyloid pathology, and decreased plaque growth rates over time.

The exact mechanism by which this blood exchange process decreases amyloid accumulation and improves memory is not known, but possible explanations include the theory that the reduction of amyloid beta proteins in the bloodstream could facilitate the redistribution of the peptide from the brain to the periphery.

Another hypothesis suggests that blood exchange somehow prevents the accumulation of amyloid beta, or inhibits the reuptake of removed amyloid beta. In any case, and regardless of the action mechanisms linked to this blood exchange therapy, this research shows a new line of treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

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