Alzheimer’s disease shares some key similarities with healthy aging, according to a new mathematical model described today in eLife.
The model provides unique insights into the multiscale biological alterations in the elderly and neurodegenerative brain, with important implications for identifying future treatment targets for Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers developed their mathematical model using a range of biological data — from ‘microscopic’ information using gene activity to ‘macroscopic’ information about the brain’s burden of toxic proteins (tau and amyloid), its neuronal function, cerebrovascular flow, metabolism and tissue structure from molecular PET and MRI scans.
“In both aging and disease research, most studies incorporate brain measurements at either micro or macroscopic scale, failing to detect the direct causal relationships between several biological factors at…
