The heartbreaking moment a person with Alzheimer’s disease no longer recognises a loved one is the targeted focus of research in a United States university.
Dr Harald Sontheimer, from the University of Virginia, said a new study was revealing what happened in the brain at that moment and offered hope for prevention.
Dr Sontheimer said the research team found that when protective structures around brain cells broke down, people may lose the ability to recognize loved ones, with lab studies finding that keeping these structures intact helped mice remember one another.
“Finding a structural change that explains a specific memory loss in Alzheimer’s is very exciting,” he said.
“It is a completely new target, and we already have suitable drug candidates in hand.”
Dr Sontheimer said Alzheimer’s disease affected 55 million people around the world, and that number was expected to grow by 35 percent in the next five years alone.
He said the new research built on previous studies which revealed the importance of “perineuronal nets” in the brain.
“These nets act as protective barriers, ensuring nerve cells communicate properly. This communication is essential for neurons to form and store new memories.”
Dr Sontheimer said disruptions in these protective nets might mark a critical turning point in Alzheimer’s disease.
Read the full study: Degradation of perineuronal nets in hippocampal CA2 explains the loss of social cognition memory in Alzheimer’s disease.
