In a study published in Nature Communications, Mayo Clinic researchers have identified specific DNA-level changes in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Using advanced biological analysis, the team mapped alterations in the brain's regulatory landscape that may help explain why Alzheimer's presents and progresses differently from person to person.

Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) are typically diagnosed after irreversible pathology has developed. Aging, the strongest risk factor, drives molecular changes that predispose the brain to synaptic dysfunction and proteinopathy (neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the abnormal folding, aggregation, and accumulation of specific proteins within neurons or brain tissues). Glycosylation and extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling are processes crucial for protein folding, stability and cell signaling and represent underexplored mechanisms linking aging to neurodegeneration, opening avenues for biomarker discovery; yet mass spectrometry-based glycoproteomics and glycomics studies have remained limited until now.

 

Using a unique on-slide tissue digestion method and advanced mass spectrometry technique that captures substantially more molecular information than prior methods, researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine have discovered protein and sugar level changes that occur with aging and Alzheimer’s disease brains, especially when Alzheimer’s disease co-occurs with Lewy body pathology.

Researchers measured levels of the blood biomarker tau phosphorylated at threonine 217 (pTau217) in 429 participants whose amyloid pathology status had been characterized by PET scans.

An exploratory clinical trial from the University of Pittsburgh suggests that low‑dose oral lithium may help slow the decline of verbal memory, or ability to remember and recall words and sentences, in older adults with mild cognitive impairment, particularly among those with evidence of amyloid beta—one of the hallmark biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease.

An international collaboration, co-led by a University of Minnesota Medical School researcher, has published a new paper in Alzheimer’s & Dementia that opens in the same window synthesizing global evidence on the origins of dementia inequities in Indigenous communities and how community strengths can inform brain health research worldwide.