Dysfunction of the Glymphatic System Correlates with Faster Progression of Alzheimer ' s Disease

The glymphatic system is one of the pathways for drainage of cerebrospinal fluid from the brain to the body. This drainage is necessary to remove metabolic waste from the brain, and there is good evidence for reduced outflow of cerebrospinal fluid to lead to the development of neurodegenerative conditions. The work here adds to this body of evidence, showing that impaired flow of cerebrospinal fluid through the glymphatic system correlates with later severity of Alzheimer's disease. The glymphatic system is an essential fluid-clearance system in the brain. The highly organized cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) transport system subserves the influx of CSF into the brain parenchyma along the arterial perivascular spaces and subsequent transfer to the brain interstitial space. Impaired brain clearance mechanisms may be an essential factor contributing to the deposition of pathological proteins in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The novel fluid transport system provides a promising target for the prevention or treatment of AD. Recently, a measure of perivascular clearance activity in the human brain using diffusion MRI called diffusion tensor image analysis along the perivascular space (DTI-ALPS) has been proposed. The reliability of the ALPS index as a measure of glymphatic activity was supported in a recent study that found a significant correlation between the ALPS index and glymphatic clearance function. In the field of AD, previous studies have observed a decreased ALPS in...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs