New Link Between Diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease Discovered

A new study explored the connection between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease as the number of Alzheimer’s disease diagnoses rapidly rises with the increase in the incidence of diabetes and pre-diabetes.

Chronic hyperglycemia (high blood glucose) impairs working memory performance and alters fundamental aspects of working memory networks, according to a study published in the journal Communications Biology.

A team of UNLV neuroscientists studied the link between type II diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease to understand why diabetes can elevate Alzheimer’s risk.

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‘A central feature of diabetes, hyperglycemia impairs neural activity in a similar way to Alzheimer's disease models.’

“Diabetes is a major risk factor for developing Alzheimer's disease, but it is not clear why,” says James Hyman, study author and associate professor of psychology at UNLV.

This study is the first evidence showing neural activity changes due to hyperglycemia that overlap with what is observed in Alzheimer’s systems.

Researchers found that two parts of the brain that are central to forming and retrieving memories — the hippocampus and the anterior cingulate cortex were over-connected, or hypersynchronized. These two parts of the brain are affected early in Alzheimer’s progression.

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Though synchrony is important for different parts of the brain to work together, it has to happen at the right time and to happen with control.

Sometimes, there’s just too much ‘talking’ between certain areas and this leads to memory difficulties.

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Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and eventually the ability to carry out the simplest tasks.

In Alzheimer’s patients, there is over-connection in certain areas where there should be flexibility. In this hyperglycemia study model, evidence of the connections are seen in real-time during crucial moments to do the task.

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This most recent finding not only provides novel information about brain activity in the hyperglycemia model, but also provides an additional important measure that can be used for continuing research.

The next step in this study is to combine the biochemical markers and electrophysiology data to test specific mechanisms responsible for potential treatments.

Source-Medindia