Could Stem Cells Could Revolutionize Alzheimer’s Treatment?

It’s a sad reality that mainstream medicine’s attempts to treat Alzheimer’s disease have fallen short, despite billions of dollars in research.

After decades of study, there’s still no cure or viable treatment that truly works. The drugs that are available often come with a host of side effects and little cognitive improvement, leaving patients and their families feeling helpless.

But the quest for a better way continues, and now, new research is showing promise for the future of Alzheimer’s treatment.

A team of neurologists at Third Military Medical University in China has made a surprising discovery: transplanting bone marrow stem cells from young mice into older mice can slow the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

In the study, published in the journal Science Advances, the researchers transplanted hematopoietic stem cells from the bone marrow of young, two-month-old mice into older, nine-month-old mice that had been bred to exhibit Alzheimer’s-like symptoms.

The results were striking.

The mice that received the young stem cell transplants showed a decrease in amyloid β, a protein that forms the hallmark “plaques” in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, in both their brains and blood.

They also had fewer cerebral plaques overall and demonstrated improvements in their cognitive abilities. In contrast, mice in a control group that received transplants from older mice saw no such benefits.

The researchers found that the transplants seemed to rejuvenate the immune system, which has been prior studies have linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. By introducing these youthful, robust immune cells, the transplants appeared to downregulate genes associated with the expression of Alzheimer’s-related proteins, essentially hitting the brakes on the disease’s progression.

This groundbreaking work suggests that stem cell transplants from young donors could potentially be an effective therapy for treating Alzheimer’s in humans.

Of course, stem cell transplants are not without their risks and challenges. The procedure can be costly and invasive, and finding suitable young donors may prove difficult. Additionally, the long-term effects of such transplants in humans with Alzheimer’s remain unknown.

But for the millions of people worldwide living with Alzheimer’s and their loved ones, any step forward in treatment is cause for celebration. By thinking outside the box and exploring innovative approaches like this, researchers are inching closer to a world where Alzheimer’s is no longer a death sentence, but a manageable condition with effective treatment options.

To a world without Alzheimer’s,

Rachel Mace
Managing Editorial Director, e-Alert
with contributions from the research team

Sources:

Pu-Yang Sun et al. (2024). Rejuvenation of peripheral immune cells attenuates Alzheimer’s disease-like pathologies and behavioral deficits in a mouse model. Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adl1123

Mehta, D., Jackson, R., Paul, G., Shi, J., & Sabbagh, M. (2017). Why do trials for Alzheimer’s disease drugs keep failing? A discontinued drug perspective for 2010-2015. Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs, 26(6), 735–739. https://doi.org/10.1080/13543784.2017.1323868

Goldman, B., & Center, S. U. M. (n.d.). One step back: Why the new Alzheimer’s plaque-attack drugs don’t work. Medicalxpress.com. Retrieved June 13, 2024, from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-alzheimer-plaque-drugs-dont.html