itemprop=description content=As of 2020, approximately 5.8 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, but recent groundbreaking research may provide hope to better understand and potentially prevent this devastating condition.
Oct 9 2023Reviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLM As of 2020, approximately 5.8 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, but recent groundbreaking research may provide hope to better understand and potentially prevent this devastating condition.
According to the study, which was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, there is a well-known association between diabetes, metabolic syndrome and an increased risk of cognitive dysfunction and Alzheimer's disease. Diabetes, in particular, can lead to atherosclerosis and vascular inflammation, which are thought to trigger Alzheimer's disease in susceptible individuals. The Western diet is a major cause of metabolic issues.
The research focused on the transcription factor, STAT 4, which plays a significant role in inflammation activation in the body. When STAT4 was intact, prolonged feeding with a Western diet, led to a diabetes-like metabolic syndrome characterized by impaired sensitivity to glucose and insulin, indicating early diabetes. However, genetically modified mice lacking STAT4 in their brains were fully protected when fed the same diet and showed less brain activation of a range of inflammatory genes.