Aug 7, 2025 05:45 PM
(This post was last modified: Aug 7, 2025 05:45 PM by C C.)
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1093308
KEY POINTS: Study shows for the first time that lithium plays an essential role in normal brain function and can confer resistance to brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists discovered that lithium is depleted in the brain by binding to toxic amyloid plaques — revealing a new way Alzheimer’s may begin. A new class of lithium-based compounds avoids plaque binding and reverses Alzheimer’s and brain aging in mice, without toxicity.
INTRO: What is the earliest spark that ignites the memory-robbing march of Alzheimer’s disease? Why do some people with Alzheimer’s-like changes in the brain never go on to develop dementia? These questions have bedeviled neuroscientists for decades.
Now, a team of researchers at Harvard Medical School may have found an answer: lithium deficiency in the brain.
The work, published Aug. 6 in Nature, shows for the first time that lithium occurs naturally in the brain, shields it from neurodegeneration, and maintains the normal function of all major brain cell types. The findings — 10 years in the making — are based on a series of experiments in mice and on analyses of human brain tissue and blood samples from individuals in various stages of cognitive health... (MORE - details, no ads)
KEY POINTS: Study shows for the first time that lithium plays an essential role in normal brain function and can confer resistance to brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists discovered that lithium is depleted in the brain by binding to toxic amyloid plaques — revealing a new way Alzheimer’s may begin. A new class of lithium-based compounds avoids plaque binding and reverses Alzheimer’s and brain aging in mice, without toxicity.
INTRO: What is the earliest spark that ignites the memory-robbing march of Alzheimer’s disease? Why do some people with Alzheimer’s-like changes in the brain never go on to develop dementia? These questions have bedeviled neuroscientists for decades.
Now, a team of researchers at Harvard Medical School may have found an answer: lithium deficiency in the brain.
The work, published Aug. 6 in Nature, shows for the first time that lithium occurs naturally in the brain, shields it from neurodegeneration, and maintains the normal function of all major brain cell types. The findings — 10 years in the making — are based on a series of experiments in mice and on analyses of human brain tissue and blood samples from individuals in various stages of cognitive health... (MORE - details, no ads)