Alzheimer’s impairs insulin signalling in the portion of the brain responsible for regulating metabolism, making a person with the disease more likely to develop diabetes, a new study in mice suggests
Alzheimer’s impairs insulin signalling in the portion of the brain responsible for regulating metabolism, making a person with the disease more likely to develop diabetes, a new study in mice suggests.
The findings by researchers from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the US also indicate that an increase of a particular group of amino acids in the blood could serve as a biomarker of impaired brain insulin signalling.
The study, conducted in mice, is part of ongoing research to better understand the link between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and diabetes. It is the first study to show that mice with AD have insulin resistance (a precursor to type II diabetes) in the hypothalamus, the area of the brain that regulates metabolism of nutrients such as fatty acids, glucose and amino acids in tissues including muscle, liver and fat. The mice with AD also showed elevated levels of branched chain amino acids (BCAA) in the blood. A previous study from the same team of experts had demonstrated that brain insulin signalling regulates BCAA levels in blood, and hence BCAAs could be a novel biomarker of hypothalamic insulin action in patients with Alzheimer’s, which still needs to be confirmed in humans.
