Lithium could be a key element to resolve many mysteries related to Alzheimer’s disease and brain aging, according to researchers from the Harvard Medical School.
Researchers from Harvard and Rush universities have thus discovered that the absence of lithium in mouse feeds caused cerebral inflammation and modifications associated with premature aging, according to the results of experiments published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
These studies, conducted on mice predisposed to brain alterations similar to those of Alzheimer’s disease, have shown that a low diet in lithium accelerates the accumulation of adhesive proteins.
These proteins form plates and tangles typical of this pathology, explained the authors of the study. This lithium deficiency has also led to faster deterioration in memory capacities in these animals.
However, maintaining a normal rate of lithium in mice as they age seems to have protected them from the brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
A new piece of the puzzle
If these results are confirmed by other research, they could open the way to new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, which affects approximately 6.7 million elderly people in the United States, according to American centers for the control and prevention of diseases.
The researchers hope that this discovery will help to assemble the many pieces of the puzzle of Alzheimer’s disease.
“This is a potential candidate for a common mechanism leading to multisystem degeneration of the brain preceding dementia,” said Dr. Bruce Yankner, professor of genetics at the Harvard Medical School, who led the study.
“It will take much more scientific research to determine whether it is a common route … or a path among several others” leading to Alzheimer’s disease, “he added. “The data is very intriguing.”
This new study corroborates previous studies suggesting that lithium could play an important role in Alzheimer’s disease.
A Danish study published in 2017 revealed that people whose drinking water contained higher levels of lithium were less likely to receive a diagnosis of dementia than those whose tap water naturally contained lower lithium levels.
Another study published in 2022 in the United Kingdom revealed that the people who were prescribed lithium were about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s disease diagnosed as those of the control group.
Lithium is a metal mainly recognized in medicine for its mood stabilizing properties. It is administered to people with bipolar disorders and depression. It was approved by the American Food and Drug Administration in 1970, but doctors have already used it for almost a century to treat mood disorders.
