Brain cell activity increases levels of key ingredient in Alzheimer...( er studies that suggested crossword puz...),Health

According to Holtzman, their new results and the WUSTL study published earlier this year instead offer further evidence that "cognitive idleness is not good from the perspective of Alzheimer's risk." The lead author of the earlier study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, was Randy Buckner, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the School of Arts and Sciences and associate professor of neurobiology and radiology at the School of Medicine.

Together, these two studies may provide an explanation why specific regions are vulnerable to this disease. Holtzman and Cirrito speculate that activities such as crosswords and exercise may increase activity in brain areas less likely to be damaged by Alzheimer's and cause a corresponding reduction in activity levels in the regions consistently damaged by Alzheimer's disease.

"Almost all neurological diseases involve selective vulnerability--only certain classes of nerve cells or nerve cells found in particular regions are affected," Holtzman says. "Why that vulnerability is so selective often can be very difficult to determine, and Alzheimer's disease is no exception."

Washington University researchers became interested in connections between nerve cell activity levels and amyloid beta production when they read a paper two years ago from researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the University of Chicago that linked increased activity in nerve cell cultures to increased levels of amyloid beta.

Cirrito had previously modified a technique known as microdialysis to enable repeated sampling and measurement of amyloid beta levels in the brains of mice genetically modified to model human Alzheimer's disease. With Holtzman, Steven Mennerick, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry, and others, Cirrito used direct electrical stimulation and a variet
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Contact: Michael C. Purdy
purdym@wustl.edu
314-286-0122
Washington University School of Medicine
21-Dec-2005