People with type 2 diabetes could be more likely to develop brain "knuckles" associated with Alzheimer's, suggests a recent study.
The work found that people with type 2 diabetes had a greater accumulation of brain knights, even if they had no dementia or slight problems with memory and thought.
The findings, published on September 2 in the Neurology magazine, point to an explanation of why people with type 2 diabetes have a higher risk of suffering from Alzheimer's.
This means that type 2 diabetes could cause brain anomalies that are added to other degenerative changes that finally lead to dementia, explained the main investigator of the study, Dr. Velandai Srikanth, geriatrician of the University of Monash in Melbourne, Australia.
correlation
However, he said, this study shows only a correlation between type 2 diabetes and brain knots.It is not clear if type 2 diabetes is the cause, since there are other factors to take into account.
Obesity is an example, said Srikanth.People with type 2 diabetes are often obese, and another investigation linked obesity with a greater accumulation of brain knots.
On the other hand, diabetes could contribute directly, causing blood sugar levels to be high chronic, for example.But more research is needed to clarify what the cause is, said Srikanth.
greater risk
Studies showed that people with type 2 diabetes are almost twice as a risk of contracting Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia than people without evil.
That could be due in part to the highest rates of stroke and the narrowing of arteries that supply blood to the brain, according to Srkanth's team.
But the same could be related to degeneration of brain tissue.In an earlier investigation, the researchers of the present study found that the elderly with diabetes tended to show a shrinking of brain size than those who did not have the disease.
The new findings are based on 124 older people with type 2 and almost 700 diabetes without the disease.Some had Alzheimer's, other mild problems of memory and thought, and others maintained mental sharpness.
All study participants underwent brain IRM and approximately half were taken from the cerebrospinal fluid to measure the levels of amyloid beta and tau, proteins that make up the plates and knots observed in the brains of those affected by the Alzheimer.
In general, the study found that people with diabetes suffered a greater thinning of the cerebral cortex, the area with the highest concentration of nerve cells.People with type 2 diabetes also had higher levels of Tau protein in their cerebrospinal fluid, indicating that there are more knots in the brain, according to the study.
A researcher specializing in Alzheimer who reviewed the study described him as “important”.
"Clearly shows that type 2 diabetes is associated with an increase in [TAU] and a reduction in cortical thickness," said Kalipada Pahan, a professor of neurological sciences at the Medical Center of the University of Rush, in Chicago.
The involvement, according to Pahan, is that preventing or improving the control of diabetes could be a way to combat the formation of knots in the brain.
But for now, it is not clear why diabetes is related to the accumulation of the Tau protein.
"There are several factors that could be influencing," said Srikanth.
The high level of blood sugar chronic is a possibility, he said.Another is low intensity inflammation throughout the body: a state that isLook at diabetes and other chronic conditions.
Obesity could also be part of the puzzle, according to Srikanth.There is an "interesting set of evidence" that relates obesity to the Tau protein, he explained.
Revelation
The study pointed out that brain autopsies also revealed that Alzheimer's patients who had had a lot of weight at 50 years of age were more brain knots than those who had had a normal weight.
