United States: A new scientific study shows that the brain has a waste disposal mechanism that removes junk proteins associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Advanced imaging scans also identified a network of fluid-containing structures found running along the arteries and veins in the brain, researchers said on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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These structures enable the CSF to pass through the brain – perhaps washing out unwanted proteins like amyloid and tau, the researchers said.
Those toxic proteins accumulate in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and lead to the formation of plaque and tangles, which are characteristic of the disease.
Earlier studies identified such fluid channels in mouse brains, but now it has been proved in human brains too, the researchers added.
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According to Dr. Juan Piantino, a senior researcher and an associate professor of pediatric neurology at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) School of Medicine, “Nobody has shown it before now,” upi.com reported.
“This shows that cerebrospinal fluid doesn’t just get into the brain randomly, as if you put a sponge in a bucket of water,” Piantino added. “It goes through these channels.”
In the study, researchers gave five postoperative OHSU patients a tracer that would be transported along with cerebrospinal fluid in the brain because they were neurological patients who were scheduled for brain surgery.
The research team then employed MRI scans as a tool for visualizing the connectivity of the tracer in the brain.
Photos demonstrated that the fluid traveled through tubelike structures within the brain that were referred to as the perivascular spaces.
As Dr. Erin Yamamoto, a co-lead researcher and a resident in neurological surgery at the OHSU School of Medicine, said, “You can actually see dark perivascular spaces in the brain turn bright,” upi.com reported.
The pathways, the researchers have argued, enable the elimination of waste that has been produced in the brain in much the same way the lymphatic system gets rid of waste produced by the immune system across the body.
Piantino added, “People thought these perivascular spaces were important, but it had never been proven,” and “Now it has.”
As for the development of this waste-disposal system in the brain, scientists commented that future research may be directed at enhancing it.
For instance, it was said that quality sleep is understood to assist the system in effectively removing waste proteins from the brain.
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