MOSCOW, September 21. A new way to combat Alzheimer's disease was proposed by SPbPU scientists. According to them, the mechanism they discovered for stimulating the activity of astrocytes—cells that “help” neurons—could serve as the basis for effective therapy for this disease. The results are presented in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia according to WHO statistics. This disease leads to loss of cognitive functions, including due to disturbances in the memorization process — in the later stages, the patient’s every day begins with a clean slate, since information from short-term memory is not stored in long-term memory.
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The exact mechanism of occurrence of Alzheimer's disease has not yet been established, but it is known that the cause of impaired intellectual abilities is damage to synapses, that is, contact between neurons.
Today, experts identify two classes of molecules whose pathological activity leads to to Alzheimer's disease: amyloid beta proteins and tau proteins. However, attempts to build therapy on their suppression were unsuccessful, scientists said.
Scientists from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) proposed and tested a new approach to this problem on model animals. According to them, by acting in a special way on astrocytes — cells that modulate the activity of neurons — it is possible to achieve a significant restoration of the functions of damaged nerve cells.
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“Unlike existing approaches, where the impact is focused on damaged neurons, we tried to act indirectly, using optogenetics methods, stimulating astrocytes, which can be called the main assistants of neurons,” said Evgeniy Gerasimov, a graduate student at the Higher School of Biomedical Systems and Technologies of St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.< /p>
The excitation of astrocytes in the presented work occurred due to the impact of light on a sensitive protein located on the outer side of the membrane of these cells. The light caused astrocytes to release gliotransmitters — molecules that help restore the transmission of nerve impulses and neuronal plasticity.
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“Part of the substances released by astrocytes “calms” neurons that are overexcited during the development of Alzheimer’s disease, while others have a positive effect on their electrical activity. This is a fundamentally new approach to the treatment of this disease,” noted Olga Vlasova, director of the Higher School of Biomedical Systems and Technologies of St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.< br />
According to scientists, tests on laboratory mice have shown that the overall effect of the provoked release of gliotransmitters is manifested in the positive regulation of neuron activity and the restoration of their functional characteristics.
In the future, scientists They plan to use another method of activating astrocytes — chemogenetic, which involves exposing cells to special substances rather than light. In this case, not separate parts of the hippocampus are used, as in optogenetics, but this part of the brain completely.
SPbPU is a participant in the state support program for universities of the Russian Federation «Priority-2030».