Dementia, astrocytes and prediabetes are also affected[클릭, 글로벌 제약·바이오]

[이데일리 유진희 기자] A collection of global pharmaceutical and bioindustry issues for a week (May 29-June 4). This week, news about dementia caught the attention of the industry.

Medical Express said that a research team led by Professor Trike Paskoal, a neuropsychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, found a link between astrocytes, which are helper cells for the brain’s nerve cells, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s disease occurs when amyloid beta, a surface protein in the space between nerve cells, and tau protein in nerve cells become misfolded and aggregate or bind together, turning into toxic proteins that kill cells nervous.

Astrocytes are support cells that help nerve cells in the brain, make energy necessary for the brain, regulate iron and hydrogen ion concentrations, and are involved in the formation of synapses, which are signal transmission pathways in nerve cells.

According to the research team, a positive astrocyte response could be a sign that predicts the clinical symptoms of dementia. This is the result of analyzing data from 1016 elderly people (average age 69.6) with normal cognitive function who took part in three related studies.

The research team measured the level of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an indicator of activity produced by the response of astrocytes, in their blood samples. GFAP plays an important role in regulating the motility and maintaining the shape of astrocytes.

As a result, it was revealed that only those who showed positive reactions of beta amyloid and astrocytes also had tawoopathy. Tauopathy refers to neurodegenerative diseases caused by abnormal structure formation through misfolding of the tau protein. Examples include Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Lewy body dementia.

The research team expects that this research can be used in clinical trials of dementia treatment candidates in the future. This is because a significant number of people with abnormal beta amyloid do not develop clinical symptoms of dementia. This means that by adding an astrocyte response marker, it is possible to accurately select clinical trial participants who will show symptoms of dementia in the future. The findings were published in the latest issue of the British medical journal Nature Medicine.

Studies have also shown that prediabetes is more likely to lead to diabetes. Prediabetes refers to a fasting blood sugar level that is above the upper limit of the normal range of 99 mg/dL and does not reach the diagnostic criteria for diabetes of 126 mg/dL (100 to 125 mg/dL) . If it is more than 127mg/dL, it is judged as diabetes.

Health Day News reported that a research team led by Elizabeth Selvin, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, uncovered this information. This is the result of analyzing data from 11,656 people who took part in the US ‘Atherosclerosis Risk in Community’ (ARIC) study. They were free of diabetes at the time of study entry, of which 20330 (20%) were prediabetic.

According to the research team, the risk of dementia increased threefold when prediabetes converted to diabetes before the age of 60. The age at which prediabetes led to diabetes increased by 73% in those aged 60 to 69 and 23% in those aged 70 to 79. If prediabetes developed and the age of diabetes onset was over 80, there was no association with an increased risk of dementia.

Insulin resistance and hyperglycemia are known to promote the accumulation of beta-amyloid and tau, which are abnormal proteins in brain neurons associated with dementia. The results of this study were published in the latest issue of Diabetologia, the journal of the European Diabetes Research Association.