Stress Granules: The Key Factor That May Uncover the Origin of Alzheimer’s
The complicated evolution of Alzheimer’s disease may have a single underlying cause: the continuous generation of stress granules in brain cells, a process that should be transient but that, in pathological settings, could induce all the changes usual of the disease.
Proposed by a team of Arizona State University researchers in a paper in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, this creative idea could alter the knowledge of Alzheimer’s and create new paths for early treatment and prevention.
Until previously underappreciated, the findings of the research point to the primary causes of Alzheimer’s, including the buildup of amyloid plaques, tau protein tangles, brain inflammation and synaptic dysfunction, being one single biological mechanism.
Stress Granules: Does Neuron Collapse Starting Here?
What They Are and Why Alzheimer’s Might Start There?
Temporary clumps of RNA and proteins, stress granules develop inside cells in reaction to damaging outside events like viral infections, environmental pollutants, pesticides, inflammation, and genetic abnormalities.
Usually, these granules enable cells to survive by momentarily stopping some metabolic activities, therefore allowing the cell to heal. In those prone to Alzheimer’s, these granules seem to grow persistent and impede vital cellular transit between the nucleus and the cytoplasm.
This results in a deficit in the synthesis of proteins vital for brain operation and changes the expression of over a thousand genes, therefore producing a gradual state of neuronal degeneration.
A Novel Approach to Treatment Preventing Alzheimer’s Before Amyloid Plaques
One of the most shocking features of the study is that these changes show long before conventional symptoms of the disease, such amyloid plaques or tau neurofibrillary tangles, show.
Should this hypothesis be validated by more research, the emphasis of pharmacological study could change from eradicating plaques to stopping the persistent generation of stress granules, hence providing new options for early intervention.
Given the paucity of curative treatments for Alzheimer’s, the researchers propose that focusing on these granules could postpone or even stop the start of the illness, a vital aim.
This suggests what direction Alzheimer’s research should go from now?
Should stress granules be the first cause of the illness, the scientific community will now have to concentrate on novel early indicators to identify this aberration years before symptoms start.
Overcoming the conventional approach focusing just on amyloid plaques, research on medications able of influencing the production of these granules could represent the new frontier in the battle against Alzheimer’s.
This finding could lead to a revolution in the knowledge and treatment of Alzheimer’s, therefore offering at last specific solutions to one of the most pressing problems of contemporary medicine.
