Researchers have identified potentially toxic cells they call “zombie cells” in the brains of people who have died from Alzheimer’s disease.
According to researchers from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, these cells, which accumulate in tissues throughout the body with age, lead to chronic infections and other diseases.
In the study, whose results were published in the journal “Nature Aging”, the researchers said that the discovery of senescent neurons “zombie” in people who died suffering from Alzheimer’s, will help scientists to develop drugs and treatments that target them, and thus open the door to treating the disease, of which dementia is the most common form.
Commenting on the study, University of Texas Professor of Cell Science and Anatomy Abel Zare said: “To stop dementia and forms of cognitive decline, we need to know the causes and mechanisms of disease development. Preliminary results of the study indicate that zombie cells have a negative impact on this, and therefore removing them or mitigating their effects may prevent damage to the disease.” the brain”.
Zare and his colleagues tested 140,000 cells from 76 brains and found that the brains of those who died with Alzheimer’s had high levels of beta-amyloid plaques and the protein tau, which accumulated in the brain.
In sum, scientists confirmed that drugs that target such cells in the brain can reduce the effects of the accumulation of such elements, and slow the progression of Alzheimer’s symptoms.
And according to the United Press International, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation has provided support for a clinical trial, to test the effects of removing “zombie” cells in elderly people with mild cognitive impairment, or Alzheimer’s disease in its early stages, according to Sky News Arabia.
It is worth noting that about 6 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which causes progressive memory loss and cognitive decline, according to the American Alzheimer’s Association.
.