- Researchers have discovered that energy production can be disrupted before the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
- The mechanism underpinning this has not been clear.
- A team of researchers have used nerve cell models to decipher the part of the Krebs cycle that is disrupted in the mitochondria of people with Alzheimer’s disease.
The brain uses up 20% of the body’s energy, and does so surprisingly efficiently.
Still, this makes it the most metabolically demanding organ in the body, and cell signaling using this energy allows us to carry out cognitive processes in the brain.
Disruption to energy metabolism and therefore signaling between cells in the brain, can cause problems with cognition, and
This is related to the dysfunction of mitochondria, the organelles within cells that produce the energy that cells require.
Dr. Clifford Segil, neurologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, told Medical News Today in an email that mitochondrial dysfunction is also involved in other conditions
He said that ”mitochondrial dysfunction is well known to be involved in muscle disorders or myopathies.” In addition, ”[a] condition called
For these reasons, said Dr. Segil:
”It would make sense to me that neurodegenerative diseases may be due to mitochondrial disease. Mitochondria are the ‘powerhouses’ of cells and their dysfunction causes cells to not work and in the brain, it is reasonable to think this would cause decreased ‘synapses’ or connection between cells.”
One recent study has shown that mitochondrial activity increased in neurons in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, before disease onset.
This occurred alongside an increase in the activity of genes involved in oxidative…
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