Experts reject claims that the findings demonstrate “Alzheimer’s disease transmission” in mice, and that human transplant recipients are at risk
Mice developed memory problems, as measured by tests such as a Y-shaped maze, after a bone marrow transplant from mice with a rare Alzheimer’s-linked mutation.Bone marrow transplants between mice can transmit symptoms and pathology associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a controversial study published today in.
Alzheimer’s is partly characterized by so-called plaques of beta amyloid, a fragment of a larger protein called APP, around cells in the brain. Although there are rare, early-onset versions of the disease driven by specific mutations in the gene coding for APP or related proteins, most cases arise in people over age 65 and don’t have a single known cause.
Although scientists cannot perfectly reproduce Alzheimer’s in animals, mice carrying this gene develop some symptoms characteristic of the condition, including poor memory, as measured by their navigation through mazes and other behavioral tests. Their brains also show clumps of beta amyloid, but lack other hallmarks of the disease, such as so-called tangles of a protein called tau.
The team is now studying the mechanisms underlying these results and plans to test other sorts of cellular transplants and blood transfusions, says study co-author Chaahat Singh, a postdoc in Jefferies’s lab.
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