Alzheimer's disease – type 3 diabetes?
Recently, there is more and more evidence that Alzheimer's disease is interrelated with insulin resistance, that is, in a certain sense, it is type 3 diabetes.
This assumption is based on a number of observations, including a proven increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in diabetic patients and a decrease in the concentration of insulin in the brain tissue of patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Two groups of scientists working under the leadership of Konrad Talbot from the University of Pennsylvania and Fernanda De Felice from the University of Rio de Janeiro simultaneously published the results of independent studies on the relationship between insulin resistance and Alzheimer's disease.
As part of the first work, researchers studied insulin-mediated signaling mechanisms in human brain tissues obtained during the autopsy of vsore after the death of patients with Alzheimer's disease who did not have such a diagnosis. They came to the conclusion that the activation state of many molecules involved in this mechanism is closely interrelated with the state of memory and cognitive function. Based on this, they suggested that insulin resistance is a common early symptom of Alzheimer's disease.
The second group of scientists also revealed violations of the functioning of insulin-mediated signaling mechanisms in the brain tissues of mice and humanoid monkeys with the Alzheimer's disease model and in the neurons of patients also extracted shortly after their death.
In a mouse model, they demonstrated that the new antidiabetic drug exenatide normalizes the activity of these signaling mechanisms and significantly improves cognitive function.
In general, the data obtained indicate the existence of a pronounced relationship between insulin resistance and Alzheimer's disease. However, the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon are unclear and at the present stage it is unclear how insulin resistance affects cognitive function and whether a malfunction of insulin-mediated signaling mechanisms causes the development of Alzheimer's disease. However, in any case, the research results give hope for the emergence of new methods of treatment for this disease, which is common among elderly people.
Articles by Talbot et al. Demonstrated brain insulin resistance in Alzheimer's disease patients is associated with IGF-1 resistance, IRS-1 dysregulation, and cognitive decline and Theresa R. Bomfim et al. An anti-diabetes agent protects the mouse brain from defective insulin signaling caused by Alzheimer's disease-associated Aß oligomers published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru according to Medical News Today:
Alzheimer's Disease And Diabetes Linked By New Evidence.
22.03.2012