The research conducted by the Department of Angiocardioneurology and Translational Medicine of the Irccs Neuromed of Pozzilli (IS) opens the way to a possible therapeutic intervention capable of counteracting the brain alterations which, over time, can lead to dementia. advanced MRI also highlights the possibility of early diagnosing the damage that hypertension can cause to a patient's brain, long before the appearance of clinical signs.
The study, published in the scientific journal Hypertension – explains a note – started from observations on some hypertensive patients, in which the Neuromed research group used advanced diagnostic imaging techniques such as diffusion tensor imaging (Dti), which led to the identification of microscopic alterations to brain structures. These results represented the starting point for a series of research on laboratory animals, also identifying specific brain damage, including structural, microstructural and hemodynamic changes. Among the most significant findings, the study highlighted microstructural damage in the white matter (made up of the fibers that interconnect neurons) and a reduction in cerebral blood flow related to a widespread rarefaction of the cerebral capillaries.
“Our results – states Lorenzo Carnevale, engineer and researcher of the Department of AngioCardioNeurology and Translational Medicine of Irccs Neuromed – represent a further development in the work that we have been carrying out for many years to shed new light on the way in which hypertension can determine the cognitive impairment and contribute to the onset of neurodegenerative diseases. In addition to the known effects of hypertension on other organs, such as the heart and kidneys, for which we have specific tests, the brain also undergoes significant alterations. Today – continues the researcher – we have the possibility of promptly detecting these alterations using advanced imaging techniques”. This “could represent an important step forward in the context of the clinical management of hypertension and in understanding its long-term effects on the brain.”
But the study went deeper, revealing the pathogenic role of a neuroinflammatory mechanism mediated by Tcd8+ lymphocytes that produce interferon-γ. This further discovery opens the way to new therapeutic perspectives capable of slowing down the process of cognitive deterioration.
“When here at Neuromed we talk about translational research – underlines Giuseppe Lembo, full professor of Translational Medical Sciences and Techniques at the La Sapienza University of Rome and director of the Department of AngioCardioNeurology and Translational Medicine of the Irccs Neuromed – we are not referring to a generic collaboration between research laboratories and clinics. This study clearly shows the concreteness of the concept of translationality: patient care stimulates new observations. And we bring these ideas to the laboratory, from which we can expect concrete developments which – he concludes – will return to the patients themselves in the form of new diagnostic techniques and new therapies”.
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