The study has been published by researchers at the University of Gothenburg and shows that newborn babies have high levels of the protein – which has a healthy role in early brain development – but which also appears in connection with the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
Kaj Blennow, professor of neurochemistry at the Sahlgrenska Academy and lead author of the study, explains that the protein acts as a "tape", it holds the cells together in adult humans.
In Alzheimer's patients, on the other hand, one sees that the protein releases and becomes tangled into clumps in the nerve cells, which causes the disease process.
It was exciting to study how it looks in the blood of newborn babies. Then we found the highest levels we've ever seen, much higher than in Alzheimer's cases, says Kaj Blennow to GP.
The children have no disease changes in the form of clumps in nerve cells, so the biomarker must be interpreted as that it measures a physiological process that exists early in life during brain development and which is revived in Alzheimer's disease.
The insight that children have a built-in protection against the harmful effects of the protein on our nerve cells, he believes can pave the way for new treatments. If one understands why the protection is lost with age, researchers could develop drugs that keep the protein in check.
