High metabolism is an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease
Originally published by Anna Björklund on November 1, 2023 Photo: Getty Images An early phase in the process of developing Alzheimer’s disease is a metabolic increase in a part of the brain called the hippocampus , report researchers from Karolinska Institutet in a study published in Molecular Psychiatry . The discovery opens up for new potential methods of early intervention . Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and strikes about 20,000 people in Sweden every year. Researchers now show that a metabolic increase in the mitochondria , the cellular power plants, is an early indicator of the disease. Per Nilsson. Photo: Erik Cronberg The teams behind the study used mice that developed Alzheimer’s disease pathology in a similar way to humans. The increase in metabolism in young mice was followed by synaptic changes caused by disruption to the cellular recycling system (a process known as autophagy ), a finding that was awarded the N obel Prize...