Dopamine levels in the hippocampus, the area of the brain where memory is located, play a role in the pre-clinical phase of Alzheimer’s disease, during which small, often asymptomatic epileptic episodes occur. Furthermore, by pharmacologically intervening on these mechanisms it is possible to reduce these episodes, which can worsen cognitive decline. This is what emerges from a study conducted by the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, together with the Santa Lucia Irccs Foundation of Rome, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
“Acting even before the patient shows obvious symptoms of the disease is very complex. To achieve this it is necessary to identify with reasonable certainty the patient who will actually develop the disease and intervene as soon as possible to preserve the neurons”, explains study coordinator Marcello D’ Amelio, head of the Molecular Neuroscience laboratory of the Santa Lucia Irccs. For some years, D’Amelio has focused on the ventral tegmental area, an area of the brain linked to the production of dopamine and involved in numerous brain functions. In the new study, conducted on animal models, the researchers demonstrated that dopamine deficiency, linked to an early degeneration of the ventral tegmental area, prevents the correct functioning of the mechanisms that control cortical excitability, from which epileptic episodes arise.
“By intervening on the dopaminergic mechanisms of the brain with drugs well known for their effectiveness in Parkinson’s disease, we have managed, in experimental models and not yet in humans, to preserve neuronal activity in areas affected by the disease by reducing hippocampal hyperexcitability” , adds D’Amelio, according to whom the study “goes in the direction of identifying specific alterations of cortical excitability as disease biomarkers which, together with others currently available, can better characterize the stage of disease development and help the clinician to undertake the therapeutic path most suitable”.
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