An analysis of more than 1.6 million brain cells from older adults has captured the cellular changes that occur in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, potentially revealing new routes for preventing the most common cause of dementia in older individuals. The study also identified a second community of cells that drives the older brain down a different path that does not lead to Alzheimer's disease.
"Our study highlights that Alzheimer's is a disease of many cells and their interactions, not just a single type of dysfunctional cell," says Columbia neurologist Philip De Jager, who led the study with Vilas Menon, assistant professor of neurological sciences at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Naomi Habib of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "We may need to modify cellular communities to preserve cognitive function, and our study reveals points along the sequence of events leading to Alzheimer's where we may be able to intervene." Crunching data from 1.
6 million brain cells The study was a technical marvel, cleverly combining new molecular technologies, machine-learning techniques, and a large collection of brains donated by aging adults. Though previous studies of brain samples from Alzheimer's patients have provided insights into molecules involved in the disease, they have not revealed many details about where in the long sequence of events leading to Alzheimer's those genes play a role and which cells are involved at each step of the .