They show a link between cells with Alzheimer’s and brain tumor

A study of 12 de Octubre University Hospital reveals that some cells of the immune system predispose to suffer pathologies such as Alzheimer’s and brain tumors just from 57 years olddue to dysfunction of the blood-brain barrier that protects the Central Nervous System.

This dysfunction would be caused by the brain aging process that undergoes significant changes at that age, opening the door to defective immune cells, The hospital has indicated in a statement.

The work, published in ‘Ebiomedicine‘, suggests that acting on these pathways could offer therapeutic strategies to mitigate pathologies of the Central Nervous System associated with aging and characterized by toxic neuroinflammation and myeloid cell dysfunction.

Specifically, molecular analyzes revealed that both the dysfunction of the barrier, whose function is to protect the nervous system from the passage of harmful substances, and the integrity of neuronal connections are altered in brain aging and They are responsible for the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and brain tumors.

“We identified immunological aging processes characterized by an imbalance in inflammatory signals in the protective barrier, which promotes the entry of defective immune cells into the brain,” the researcher noted. Ricardo Garginifrom the Department of Pathological Anatomy of the 12 de Octubre Hospital and the i+12 Research Institute.

These cells called TREM2+/TIM3+ suppressive myelodes drive the ability of tumors to go undetected and eliminated by the immune system in the brain, thus favoring the development of these diseases. “We have observed that the highest peak of these significant changes in the aging process occurs at age 57,” explains the expert.

“In the case of gliomas, the data speak of a survival of 1,525 days when blood-brain barrier dysfunction is high, compared to a survival of 4,084 for patients with low blood-brain barrier dysfunction,” he specified.

The co-author of the study, Berta Seguraalso from the department of Pathological Anatomy and i+12 Research Institutehas indicated that “reactivating the aging immune system with antibodies against TIM3 could prevent the development of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and brain tumors.”

The study uses massive sequencing techniques, bioinformatics tools and a cohort of patients with glioma and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as animal models to analyze blood-brain barrier dysfunction and neuronal loss.