A new study discusses the link between cholesterol and Alzheimer

A team co-led by scientists at Scripps Research has used advanced imaging methods to expose how the production of the Alzheimer's-associated protein amyloid-beta (Aβ) in the brain is controlled by cholesterol.

We demonstrated that cholesterol is an essential signal for neurons since it determines how much Aβ gets made; and thus it should be unsurprising that apoE, which carries the cholesterol to neurons, influences Alzheimer's risk." Scott Hansen, Ph.D., an associate professor said.

Aβ is the main component of amyloid plaques, extracellular deposits found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. Aβ can also form the deposits that line cerebral blood vessels in cerebral amyloid antipathy.

In this study, Hansen and his colleagues studied the link between cholesterol and Aβ production. Cholesterol's role has been indicated by various prior studies but never confirmed directly. The scientists used an advanced microscopy technique called super-resolution imaging to look at cells and the brains of mice and tracked how cholesterol regulates Aβ production.

You couldn't just eradicate cholesterol in neurons, cholesterol is needed to set a proper threshold for both Aβ production and normal cognition," Hansen says.

"There is the suggestion here of a central mechanism, involving cholesterol, that could help explain why both Aβ plaques and inflammation are so prominent in the Alzheimer's brain," Hansen says. 

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