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Alzheimer’s Disease, the main cause of dementia, is defined by a build-up of particular proteins in the brain which can spread and cause brain shrinkage affecting memory, thinking, and behaviour. Now, a team led by scientists at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), have discovered the presence of these proteins in cervical lymph nodes in the neck.
Significantly, more of the proteins were present in the lymph nodes of younger people than older people, suggesting that they drain away less well from the brain in older adults, potentially explaining the build-up that leads to Alzheimer’s Disease. This drainage mechanism has previously been explored in mouse models, but this is the first direct demonstration of these ‘brain bins’ in humans. The findings were published in the journal Brain.
The team worked with expert radiology doctors who use ultrasound to see exactly where the neck lymph nodes are. Then, using a very fine needle they safely target an accessible node just under the skin. This is a commonly used clinical procedure usually used for investigation of lumps and bumps. In their expert hands, the risk is no more than a blood test. The team have done qualitative follow-up over several studies over the past eight years which find that participants see lymph node sampling as both tolerable and acceptable for the research question in mind.
Read the full story on the Department of Psychiatry website.