Understanding the propagation of Alzheimer’s Disease

The connections between neurons might play a role in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's Disease (AD). In a pioneering approach to studying how neurodegenerative diseases like AD spread within the brain, researchers have developed a novel in vitro experimental method that allows them to connect healthy neurons with "infected" neurons and then observe the results. How do neurodegenerative diseases like AD spread within the brain? Do the connections between neurons play a role in how these diseases develop, or is it simply that weaker nerve cells are affected first and stronger ones later in the course of the illness? These key questions, which have not yet been the object of much scientific study, are at the heart of a novel experimental method developed by Robert Meissner and Anja Kunze. The two EPFL scientists have designed a cell culture device with two compartments in which it is possible to "connect" healthy neurons and "sick" neurons via a neurite network. Their work will make it possible to conduct in-depht studies of how neurodegenerative diseases spread via the connections between neurons. "Most work on AD focuses on biochemical mechanisms within the cells," says Microsystems Laboratory 4 (LMSI4) Director Philippe Renaud, in whose lab the work took place. "In fact, AD starts in a specific area of the brain, the limbic system, and then spreads to other areas. This would tend to indicate that neural networks probably play a role in disease propagation." The method and e., the human form of "Mad Cow") Disease. Connecting two separate neuron cell cultures