Psychiatry<\/a>, the study\u00a0also\u00a0demonstrated\u00a0that a cancer medication\u00a0has the potential to reduce\u00a0this\u00a0hyperconnectivity.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe research, funded by Alzheimer’s Society and conducted in brain cells of rats, showed that low levels of the protein amyloid-beta could induce hyperconnectivity and this pattern closely resembled changes seen in the brains of people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Amyloid-beta is thought to be instrumental in Alzheimer’s disease, where it creates plaques \u2013 or sticky clumps of amyloid-beta\u00a0proteins\u00a0\u2013 around\u00a0the\u00a0neurons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These new findings suggest that low levels of amyloid-beta alone are enough to trigger early, disease-relevant changes in how brain cells connect.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Previous\u00a0research has found that the number of connections (synapses) between neurons in the brain increases during the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease, and it has been shown that these\u00a0initial\u00a0changes correlate with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in patients. MCI is characteristic of the\u00a0early stages\u00a0of Alzheimer’s\u00a0disease, prior\u00a0to widespread cell death and memory loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The\u00a0results of this new study\u00a0contribute to a\u00a0new way of thinking about Alzheimer’s disease.\u00a0Instead of starting with synapse loss, the disease may begin with too many poorly organized connections, combined with subtle but targeted changes in protein production. Over time, this unstable state could make brain circuits more vulnerable, eventually leading to the synaptic failure and cognitive decline seen in later stages of the disease.”<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Kaiyu Wu, Study First Author, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This new study\u00a0shows that low doses of amyloid-beta\u00a0protein\u00a0over\u00a0a period\u00a0of five days can cause hyperconnectivity between brain cells. The\u00a0study also\u00a0identifies\u00a0changes in levels\u00a0of\u00a049\u00a0proteins, including its own precursor,\u00a0that work together to increase the connectivity\u00a0in the\u00a0early\u00a0stages\u00a0of the disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0“This suggests the system may act as a self-reinforcing loop in which amyloid-beta promotes conditions that lead to even more amyloid-beta,” explained\u00a0Kaiyu\u00a0Wu.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Previous\u00a0work from the same research group at King’s, led by Professor Karl Peter Giese, has\u00a0identified\u00a0a drug target that might be able to alter protein production associated with synapse increases. This target, MAP kinase interacting kinase (MNK), is also the target of the clinically licensed drug eFT508, currently used in cancer clinical trials. The\u00a0drug\u00a0has\u00a0not been used to investigate or treat Alzheimer’s disease before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0team found that eFT508 prevented the increase in connectivity caused by amyloid-beta exposure.\u00a0They\u00a0also found that the drug was also able to restore 70% of the altered protein production after amyloid-beta exposure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Professor Giese,\u00a0senior author on the paper and Professor of Neurobiology of Mental Health at IoPPN, King’s College London, said:\u00a0“Our research suggests a promising drug treatment for memory loss in\u00a0mild cognitive impairment\u00a0and early Alzheimer’s disease. Next, our findings need to be\u00a0validated\u00a0first in suitable animal\u00a0models,\u00a0before clinical trials can\u00a0commence.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michelle Dyson, Chief Executive Officer at Alzheimer’s Society, said:\u00a0“This study\u00a0builds\u00a0our knowledge of brain cell changes in early-stage Alzheimer’s\u00a0disease and\u00a0suggests\u00a0that\u00a0with intervention, we may\u00a0be able\u00a0to\u00a0counteract some of\u00a0these changes as Alzheimer’s disease develops.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s\u00a0important to note this was\u00a0very\u00a0early-stage\u00a0work\u00a0in\u00a0animal\u00a0cells rather than human participants, so more research is needed.\u00a0But it shows how drug repurposing is a promising avenue for us to explore if we are to\u00a0end the devastation of dementia,\u00a0a condition that affects around one million people in the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“For decades, cancer research\u00a0has\u00a0set\u00a0the\u00a0benchmark\u00a0for what can, and should, be done for dementia.\u00a0Research\u00a0will beat dementia, and\u00a0we\u00a0look forward to seeing how this research progresses.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
Journal reference:<\/p>\n
Wu, K., et al. (2026). Low concentrations of amyloid-beta oligomers induce synaptogenesis characteristic for mild cognitive impairment and alter the de novo proteome. Translational Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1038\/s41398-026-03905-x, https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41398-026-03905-x<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neuroscientists at\u00a0King’s College\u00a0London have pinpointed a mechanism behind the increased neural connectivity observed in\u00a0the very early\u00a0stages of Alzheimer’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[7277,10454,49,48,7714,11242,10237,84,30869,14353,23583,19648,7430,38717,2986,994,156588],"class_list":{"0":"post-524035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-alzheimers-disease","9":"tag-brain","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-cancer","13":"tag-cell","14":"tag-dementia","15":"tag-health","16":"tag-kinase","17":"tag-microscopy","18":"tag-neuron","19":"tag-neurons","20":"tag-protein","21":"tag-proteome","22":"tag-psychiatry","23":"tag-research","24":"tag-synapse"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}