A study reveals them UCBM coordinated by Professor D'Amelio and just published in Nature Communications
3 April 2017 - The death of the area of the brain that produces dopamine, a neurotransmitter essential for some communication mechanisms between neurons: this would be the cause of Alzheimer's disease according to the surprising study published in Nature Communications. by a team of researchers coordinated by Marcello D'Amelio, head ofResearch Unit of Molecular Neurosciences UCBM, in collaboration with the IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation and the CNR of Rome.
The origin of the pathology, which in Italy alone affects half a million people over 60 years of age, would therefore have nothing to do with the hippocampus, the structure of the central nervous system involved in memory functions and on which researchers are focused on the past 20 years.
No researcher had so far thought that other areas of the brain could be involved in the onset of the disease. “The ventral tegmental area – explains the teacher UCBM – had never been studied in depth in the study of Alzheimer's disease, because it is a deep part of the central nervous system, particularly difficult to investigate at a neuro-radiological level".
Researchers have realized that – as in a domino effect – the death of the brain cells responsible for the production of dopamine causes the non-arrival of this substance in the hippocampus, causing its 'tilt' which generates memory loss. The study showed, already in the very early stages of the disease, the progressive death of only the neurons of the ventral tegmental area and not of those of the hippocampus. A mechanism found to be perfectly consistent with the clinical descriptions of Alzheimer's pathology made by neurologists.
A second important discovery
“We have verified – clarifies D'Amelio – that the ventral tegmental area also releases dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, the area that controls gratification and mood disorders, ensuring their proper functioning. whereby, with the degeneration of dopamine-producing neurons, the risk of experiencing a progressive loss of initiative, an indication of a pathological alteration of mood, also increases".
These findings confirm clinical observations that, from the earliest stages of Alzheimer's development, patients report a decline in interest in life's activities, lack of appetite, and lack of desire to care for, alongside episodes of memory loss. self, until you get to depression. Which would therefore be a spy of Alzheimer's and not a consequence.
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, common goal for treatment
The perspectives that this study opens up are manifold. “The next step – explains D'Amelio – will have to be the development of more effective neuro-radiological techniques, capable of giving us access to the secrets kept in the ventral tegmental area, to discover its functioning and degeneration mechanisms. Furthermore, the results obtained suggest not to underestimate the depressive phenomena in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's, because they could go hand in hand with memory loss. In the end, since Parkinson's is also caused by the death of dopamine-producing neurons, it is possible to imagine that future therapeutic strategies for both diseases will be able to focus on a common goal: to 'selectively' prevent the death of these neurons".
