They confirm the relationship between repeated head injuries and Alzheimer’s

by time news

2023-05-09 17:31:48

Research in recent decades suggests that there may be a relationship between severe or repetitive traumatic brain injuries and abnormal beta-amyloid accumulation. Certain forms of beta-amyloid can accumulate in the form of tangles and plaques in the brain, which can lead to cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. The results of the study have been published in «Radiology».

“Amyloid-beta is a molecule that is not normally found in the brain of young patients,” explains study author Carlos Leiva-Salinas, professor radiology associate from University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri. “The accumulation of beta-amyloid in the brain has been proposed to be an early event in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia worldwide, affecting millions of people.”

Head injury can be the result of direct head trauma, such as a fall or contact sports, but it can also be the result of indirect forces – such as shock waves from battlefield explosions – that shake violently the brain in the skull.

Previous autopsy studies have shown the presence of amyloid plaques as early as hours after severe brain injury.

“Non-invasive positron emission tomography, or PET, could be used to identify early-stage beta-amyloid accumulation in people or professions exposed to traumatic brain injuries, such as military, police, firefighters, soccer players, etc.”, he says Leiva-Salinas.

For the study, the researchers recruited nine military grenade or breacher instructors at the military base in Fort Leonard Wood en Fort Leonard, Missouri, from January 2020 to December 2021. Grenade and Breacher Instructors are military officers who train recruits in the use of hand grenades and explosives or other mechanical methods to force open doors.

Nine other civilians were included in the study as a healthy control group. All of the participants had no history of concussion and were men in their 30s, an age at which amyloid buildup is not expected.

The 18 participants were tested twice. The first assessment was to establish a baseline and the second took place after the blast exposure, approximately five months after the baseline examination. Military instructors filled out a digital log with the number of blast exposures, including gunshots. Control participants were tested at similar times.

Analysis software was used to segment six brain regions commonly associated with Alzheimer’s disease and TBIs

All participants underwent a head PET scan to assess and quantify amyloid changes. Analysis software was used to segment six brain regions commonly associated with Alzheimer’s disease and TBIs.

Abnormal amyloid accumulation was observed in six of the nine blast-exposed participants. Three of the participants had one brain region with increased amyloid accumulation, two participants had two regions, and one participant had three regions with abnormal accumulation.

None of the healthy control participants showed abnormal amyloid accumulation.

“More research is needed to establish the relationship between the frequency and severity of traumatic brain injuries and the degree of amyloid changes in the brain, the natural course of observed accumulation, and other potential biologic risk factors for amyloid plaque deposition.” and the development of cognitive impairment”, concludes Leiva-Salinas.

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