Scientists may have stumbled across a network of vessels in the brain that helps clear out waste fluid – a discovery that could 'represent a paradigm shift in our understanding of all neurodegenerative diseases'
may contain a hidden network of vessels that helps it dispose of metabolic waste. If confirmed to be true in future studies, the discovery could transform our understanding of the brain and even reveal new therapies for conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.
at Oslo University in Norway, who wasn’t involved in the research. “It would represent a paradigm shift in our understanding of all neurodegenerative diseases, but also conditions like stroke and traumatic brain injury, and our normal brain function.”The brain cleans itself by releasing metabolic waste into the glymphatic system, a network of channels surrounding the brain’s blood vessels that feed into theat Harvard University and his colleagues may have discovered a hidden network of lymphatic-like brain vessels inside the brain that connects to the glymphatic system. “This is my most significant discovery in 30 years,” says Ran. “It is the dream of a scientist.”, also at Harvard University, accidentally spotted the structures while looking for the protein beta-amyloid in brain slices from mice with an Alzheimer’s-like disease. Beta-amyloid helps neurons function, but it can form toxic clumps – a hallmark of Alzheimer’s – which may accumulate due to poor brain drainage.Your science-backed guide to the easy habits that will help you sleep well, stress less, eat smarter and age better.When the researchers repeated the experiment in mice with and without an Alzheimer’s-like disease, they consistently found dozens of the vessel-like structures in all the brain regions they sampled, including the cortex, which is involved in thinking and problem-solving; the hippocampus, which helps us form memories; and the hypothalamus, which controls sleep and body temperature. The structures seemed to wrap around the brain’s blood vessels and meningeal lymphatic vessels – found in the outer protective layer – suggesting they help to drain waste via the glymphatic and lymphatic systems, says Ran.The team hypothesised that the structures were either a kind of lymphatic vessel, lined by cells that contain or are coated with beta-amyloid, or a form of the protein that can develop into solid fibres that seem to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease, but areDuring sleep, your brain cleans itself by flushing through cerebrospinal fluid to prevent damage to brain cells. If you're lacking in sleep, this happens when you are awake – and seems to cause momentary lapses in attention To find out, the researchers applied protein markers that highlight lymphatic vessels to brain slices from mice. These consistently stained the tube-like structures, though less strongly than known lymphatic vessels from the same animals. This prompted them to name the structures nanoscale lymphatic-like vessels, or NLVs, and conclude that they weren’t a form of beta-amyloid. But Eide says the weak staining suggests that NLVs may not be lymphatic-like vessels, as those markers can also bind to non-lymphatic tissue. “This is a new kind of structure we’ve not known about before – but it’s unclear, what is this actually?”at the University of Southampton, UK. For instance, if the tissue sample expanded unevenly, it could lead to vessel-like fractures, he says.We have only just started to understand how our brains clean themselves, but columnist Helen Thomson finds promising evidence for how to boost this process This could explain why prior brain imaging studies that used more reliable techniques, such as electron microscopy, haven’t reported NLVs before, says Brown. The team plans to use this in the next few weeks, says Gu, who adds that earlier studies may have mistaken NLVs for axons, long projections from neurons that look similar. “I’m 90 per cent sure they are what we think,” says Ran, referencing another study by the team where fluorescently tagged beta-amyloid in the brains of mice seemed to enter nearby NLVs, suggesting they do transport waste fluid. If confirmed by other research groups, the findings could aid our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions associated with misfolded proteins, such as. It could even lead to drugs that treat such conditions, says Brown, for instance, if dilating the vessels enhances waste fluid disposal.
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