Research on brain ageing to throw new light on Alzheimer’s

The research, which was funded by the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), used fruit flies to observe the effect of lysosomal storage disease, an inherited and incurable childhood disease that effects the synapses of the brain.

Working with scientists at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry in Plymouth, biologists at University of York and Hull York Medical School found that under stressful conditions high energy forms of damaging oxygen cause the synapses in the brain to grow excessively, potentially leading to dysfunction. However, the role that this growth has in the progression of brain diseases and brain function is not yet clear.

Co-author Dr Sean Sweeney, from the Department of Biology at the University of York, said: “The findings have strong implications for neuronal function as brains age, and will add significantly to our understanding of neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.”

Fellow co-author Dr Iain Robinson, from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, added: “These changes in the brain enable us to form short-term memories such as where we parked the car, or longer-term memories, such as what is our pin number for the cashpoint machine. Our work sheds light on how our brain becomes less able to make these changes in neuronal contacts as we age and helps explain the loss of neuronal contacts seen in several neurodegenerative diseases.”

The research is published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Last week the Yorkshire Post revealed that a £6M centre had been launched at the University of York in which it is hoped research will revolutionise the treatment of arthritis.

The new Arthritis Research UK Tissue Engineering Centre aims to regenerate bone and cartilage by using patients’ own stem cells to repair the joint damage caused by the disease.