Decreased Cerebrospinal Fluid Flow is Associated with Cognitive Decline

Many neurodegenerative conditions are associated with the accumulation of forms of metabolic waste in the central nervous system, protein aggregates that form solid deposits between or within cells. Tauopathies such as frontotemporal dementia are associated with tau aggregates, synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's disease with α-synuclein, and amyloidoses with varying forms of amyloid, such as the amyloid-β found in elevated amounts in Alzheimer's disease patients. Alzheimer's itself is an amyloidosis that also becomes a tauopathy in its later stages. These protein aggregates and their surrounding halos of harmful biochemistry disrupt normal brain function and, in the worse cases, kill neurons. Eventually they kill the patient. With the exception of certain inherited conditions, in which cellular biochemistry is broken due to an unfortunate and unlucky mutation, why is it that protein aggregates form in significant amounts only in older individuals? This seems an important question to keep in mind when working towards therapies for neurodegenerative conditions. In Alzheimer's disease, amyloid-β builds up for a decade or more prior to the point at which its consequences become noticeable. But why? In recent years researchers have found ever more supporting evidence for the hypothesis that impaired drainage of cerebrospinal fluid is an important factor. Metabolic wastes in the brain can be carried away for disposal via the various pathways for drainage of cerebrospin...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs