Alzheimer’s research suggests recovery possible

Researchers have discovered that the brain\'s circuitry survives longer than previously thought in diseases of ageing such as Alzheimer\'s disease.

Research has uncovered a potential window of partial recovery for Alzheimer’s sufferers.

Alzheimer’s disease causes nerve cells in the brain to die, resulting in problems with memory, speech and understanding. Little is known about how the nerve cells die, but this new research has revealed how they first lose the ability to communicate with each other, before deteriorating further.

“We've all experienced how useless a computer is without broadband. The same is true for a neuron in the brain whose wiring (axons and dendrites) has been lost or damaged,” said Dr Michael Coleman the project’s lead researcher from the Babraham Institute. “Once the routes of communication are permanently down, the neuron will never again contribute to learning and memory, because these 'wires' do not re-grow in the human brain.”

Every one of our hundred billion nerve cells continuously shuttles hundreds of proteins and intracellular packages out along its axons and dendrites, and back again, during every minute of every day. Without this process, the wires cannot be maintained and the nervous system will cease to function within a few hours. During healthy ageing this miniature transport system undergoes a steady decline

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 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 Dr 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. Our results suggest a time window in which damaged connections between brain cells could recover under the right conditions.”