What Causes Alzheimer’s Disease? Scientists May Finally Have An Answer

Using donated human brain samples, researchers at the University of California-Riverside believe they have found the cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

“These results suggest, but do not conclusively demonstrate, that lower autophagic flux may be strongly associated with loss of function in AD brains,” the study reads.

Before, theories about what caused Alzheimer’s pointed to plaques in the brain, but this study posits that the slowing of the ability of brain cells to clean themselves, which causes buildup. Proteins typically survive for around 48 hours in the body. If they hang around too long, they become incompatible.

Alzheimer’s occurs when nerve cells die and brain tissue is lost, which causes the brain to shrink dramatically.

A healthy nerve cell, or neuron, rarely has a buildup of proteins that create plaques or tangles. The tau protein researchers focused on in the published study is found in tangles.

This buildup supposedly leads to the death of those neurons, along with memory and brain function loss.

Basically, if the brain cells cannot clean themselves, specifically neuron cells, then they will build up proteins and if the proteins stay too long, they become incompatible, leading to neuron death. This then reduces brain function and size and causes a loss of memory.

Further study needs to be done, however, about what the cleaning of spent or defective proteins from cells, known as autophagy, slows in people of 65.

However, there are ways to help the brain clean itself like fasting and exercise that could help reverse the process.

Still, a lack of cleaning is not the only factor, there also needs to be signs of dementia present, and Alzheimer’s is the leading cause of dementia.

“Roughly 20% of people have the plaques, but no signs of dementia,” said UCR Chemistry Professor Ryan Julian. “This makes it seem as though the plaques themselves are not the cause.”

More research needs to be done to know for certain and fill in some gaps, but the focus on the tau protein led to a modest breakthrough in determining why people develop Alzheimer’s.