Alzheimer’s is one of those well-known diseases that we know very little about. One of the things we detected earlier is that it has to do with the accumulation of chains of molecules (beta-amyloid) in neurons. Now we know one more thing: When these beta-amyloids accumulate in cells, the temperature of the cells rises. We owe this advance to research in a relatively unknown field: intracellular thermogenesis, or the study of the internal temperature of cells. The results were published in the journal Journal of the American Chemical Society.

What exactly was discovered?
Beta-amyloids are one of the key proteins in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. These proteins build up to form a type of fiber or “plaque,” and we now know from this latest study that these buildups cause the temperature of cells to rise significantly. Until now, we were aware that this plaque buildup is linked to the death of cells, brain mass and, with it, memory loss.

The presence of the plates caused the laboratory samples used in their study to increase their temperature by an average of 2.8 degrees Celsius, although the entire cell was not evenly heated. It may not seem like an extreme temperature, but this increase in temperature has the same effect as frying an egg: “As it heats up, proteins start to clump together and cease to be functional,” explains Gabriele Kaminski Schierle, a Cambridge professor. The university conducting the investigation.

The study authors also point out that the release of heat can start a chain reaction, causing “healthy” beta-amyloid to start accumulating as well.

A new avenue for new treatments?
“We still don’t know why these proteins build up in the body’s cells, but now we have a better idea of ​​what happens when this buildup occurs, but it also tells us how it spreads from one cell to neighboring cells.” Infecting healthy beta-amyloid from these cells”, in the words of study co-author Chyi Wei Chung.

The study should be able to serve in the future to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of a disease that is currently incurable. The team was able to reverse the increase in temperature by adding a compound to the cell, a molecule whose function is to stop the formation of beta-amyloid plaques in cells.

Further testing will be necessary to demonstrate the potential of this substance for Alzheimer’s treatment. As we well know, the process between the discovery of a substance with therapeutic properties and its application as a drug is long and often unsuccessful, but the team of researchers thinks this substance has the potential to initiate this pathway.

A cutting-edge analysis.
The analysis is based on the study of cell cultures in the laboratory, where it was made possible thanks to the development of highly sensitive thermometers. These thermometers not only analyze the temperature in areas inside the human cell, but also have high sensitivity. Without the development of these devices, such analysis would probably be impossible.

The burden of Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s is a difficult disease to study for a variety of reasons, mainly because it is slow to evolve and is released in the brain. It is estimated to affect 44 million people worldwide. In Spain, the figure is close to one million, although estimates vary. It affects 20% of people over the age of 80, according to Fundación Alzheimer’s España.

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