A study published in the scientific journal Nature shows that people with a beginner Alzheimer suffer from a lack of lithium. Therapy using the chemical compound has improved the health of sick mice.
Bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, lithium, already used in the treatment of psychiatric diseases, will it revolutionize the management of Alzheimer’s disease? A publication of the journal Nature opens promising tracks, for the management of memory and behaviors that affect 1 million French people affected by the disease.
What does the study say? In two words, researchers from the American universities of Harvard and Rush show that a lithium deficiency causes identical symptoms to Alzheimer, and that a lithium intake protects the brain from neurodegeneration observed in the disease.
How did we get to these conclusions? First of all, by comparing the concentrations of 27 metals present in the brain, both healthy and people with light cognitive disorders, often heralding Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers observed a significant drop in the amount of lithium present, in the natural state in the brain of sick people: “Among the metals we have analyzed, lithium was the only one whose concentration was significantly reduced in the brain of individuals with light cognitive disorder, a precursor state of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Experimentation in mice
They also show that in patients, lithium is “kidnapped” by amyloid plates, these deposits composed of beta-amyloid peptides, outside the cerebral neurons, which constitute one of the two most emblematic markers of the disease, with the accumulation of tau proteins in neurons.
An animal experimentation, in mice with a bare diet in lithium, showed that deficient rodents had more beta-amyloid and tau protein deposits than others. They also have more inflammatory phenomena in the brain, loss of nerve connections and fiber, an accelerated cognitive decline.
“Brain cell analyzes have shown that lithium deficiency causes changes similar to those observed in Alzheimer’s”concludes the team.
Finally, by testing a treatment based on lithium salts, scientists have “Avoid memory loss” and decreased brain lesions, “Both in Alzheimer’s mice and normal elderly mice”.
Remains to be confirmed that lithium will be a solid track to “Prevent or slow down the disease”, And to define the mode of administration as well as the doses adapted to effective therapy.
