Research has previously linked inflammation to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), yet scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Harvard Aging Brain Study (HABS) have made a surprising discovery about that relationship. In a new study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, they report that elevated levels of two chemical mediators of inflammation, known as cytokines, are associated with slower cognitive decline in aging adults.
“These are totally unexpected results,” says the study’s co-senior author, Rudolph Tanzi, PhD, vice chair of Neurology and co-director of the Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health at MGH. These findings could eventually be used to help identify healthy people who are at risk for the devastating neurological condition, before they have symptoms.
In 2008, Tanzi led a team that discovered CD33, the…
