Word has it that individuals who get Alzheimer’s disease can get sleep disturbances a couple of years prior to the condition commencing to taking hold. However, the question whether or not one condition causes the other, or vice versa, or an underlying complex cause looms over the two conditions or their overlap thereof, has always been challenging for medical scientists to conclude.
Experts’ studies have indicated that human beings’ 24-hour circadian clock is responsible for regulating the brain’s capability to get rid of wayward proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. If the scientists have come to produce accurate findings, the research output can provide a partial explanation on how circadian rhythm and sleep interruption can be contributory factors to the commencement of and development of Alzheimer’s disease, and ways in which avoiding the said interruptions can minimize the occurrence of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
Dr. Jennifer Hurley led the team of experts who have made these interrelated studies between circadian rhythm, sleep interruption, and Alzheimer’s disease at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York city.
Alzheimer’s disease commences when connections between nerve cells in the brain fail to exist. Alzheimer’s occur in continuous progression, and is associated with unusual plaques and tangles of protein elements that continuously form in the brain. Alzheimer’s is the most usual cause of dementia. Alzheimer’s is a condition that over half a million people in the United Kingdom have. This statistic, though, is expected to increase, according to an article published on The Guardian.
To maintain the healthy condition of the brains, immune cells referred to as microglia sought to start destroying the problematic proteins that pose threat of accumulation in the brain. A certain kind of protein that the cells target is referred to as amyloid beta. Amyloid beta is one of the hallmarks of the incurrence of Alzheimer’s disease.
While writing for the journal, Plos Genetics, Hurley and her team of experts have explained the means in which the descriptions on how the experts have discovered the daily rhythm, that’s in existence in microglia. Microglia, in turn, is responsible for generating regular type of waves in the protein clearing procedure. When the cells come to the point in which they have lost their circadian rhythm, the clearing procedure fails to internally succeed in commencement.
The interruption of the appropriate timing of the onset of the amyloid beta clearance may be one of the causes of why people have all seen the rising cases of plaques increase, that, in turn, accumulate in brains during the onset of and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
Sleep interruptions and challenges can frequently occur prior to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. According to Hurley, there exists other scientists that suspect the presence of complicated lapses or interrelation that link the onset of Alzheimer’s disease with sleep interruptions and challenges.
The disruption of sleep and circadian rhythms pave the way for the formation of amyloid beta. This situation, in turn, is a leading influential factor in transforming brain cells that have been destroyed to run the circadian clock. The running of the circadian clock is a factor that causes additional formation of components of amyloid beta. The rhythm in the clearance of amyloid beta particles in brains are removed as people get older, most especially for individuals who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Such a loss, can, in turn, causes the increased number of amyloid beta components to materialize in brains.
Study results generated, though, have indicated the availability of therapies that have the potential to lessen the tendency of getting Alzheimer’s, or at least, minimize the level of worsening of the associated symptoms. According to Hurley, it’s possible to stir the brains’ capability to clear the components of the amyloid beta by utilizing simple to implement procedures. Examples of these interventions or procedures are light exposure or even more innovative therapies that increase the chances of success of the implementation of immune cells activities.
