Alzheimer’s disease is complex. It is the combination of several factors such as age, genetic background… Several works have long established a link between cardiovascular disease and the risk of developing dementia.
This is why it is essential to control various predisposing factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, overweight and obesity, smoking status, chronic stress, etc.
A lack of communication…
This link, researchers from the University of Sheffield, England, have just confirmed and deepened it. As you know, heart and brain are connected by the vascular system. Like all organs, the brain receives the oxygen and energy it needs to function through the blood vessels.
Scientists have observed that heart disease causes a breakdown of a key brain function that links brain activity and blood flow. Which means the brain receives less blood for the same amount of activity.
“We found that cardiovascular disease in midlife causes the neurovascular coupling to break down,” says Dr Osman Shabir, from the Institute of Neuroscience and Health at the University of Sheffield. An important mechanism in our brain that controls the amount of blood supplied to our neurons. This breakdown means that the brain does not get enough oxygen when needed and on time. And that can lead to dementia. »
Such a genetic cause
Researchers have also found that the combination of cardiovascular disease and a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease triples the amount of beta-amyloid. This protein which, by accumulating, causes neurodegenerative pathology and increases the levels of an inflammatory gene (IL1) in the brain.
A preventive treatment in test
Since the publication of this work, the research team has received a three-year grant from the British Heart Foundation. Purpose: To examine the use of an arthritis drug that targets IL1 to see if it could reverse or reduce brain dysfunction caused by heart disease.