Is high metabolism an early sign of Alzheimer's disease? Study finds

The researchers noted that these metabolic changes could be observed before the accumulation of characteristic insoluble plaques in the brain. The study analyzed the hippocampus and used RNA sequencing to identify active genes during different stages of the disease, revealing that increased mitochondrial metabolism is one of the early indicators of Alzheimer's disease. The findings provide valuable insights for early intervention methods for this debilitating condition.

The study was published in Molecular Psychiatry and was conducted in collaboration between two research groups at Karolinska Institutet.

Reference: “Mitochondrial hypermetabolism precedes impaired autophagy and synaptic disorganization in App knock-in Alzheimer mouse models.” Luana Naia, Makoto Shimozawa, Erika Bereczki, Xidan Li, Jianping Liu, Richeng Jiang, Romain Giraud, Nuno Santos Leal, Catarina Moreira Pinho, Erik, Berger, Victoria Lim Falk, Giacomo Dentoni, Maria Ankarcrona, Per Nilsson. Molecular Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02289-4