Unforeseen discovery reveals a possible auditory marker linked to Alzheimer's illness.
In a groundbreaking discovery, neuroscience graduate student Daxiang Na at the University of Rochester Medical Center has uncovered a link between Alzheimer's disease plaques in the brain and hearing loss. The research, supported by the National Institute of Health and the National Institute on Aging, was published in Frontiers in Neuroscience.
Na conducted hearing tests on mice with amyloid beta, the main component of protein plaques and tangles found in Alzheimer's. Two different transgenic mouse models of the disease were used in the study: 5xFAD and an unspecified other model. The older mice in the 5xFAD model showed hearing changes similar to what is found in people with Alzheimer's disease, while younger mice in the 5xFAD group did not show hearing changes. The other model did not demonstrate these hearing changes.
The location of Alzheimer's disease (AD) plaques in the brain may influence hearing loss. Research indicates that amyloid beta levels in peripheral sites such as nasal secretions can mirror brain amyloid dynamics, implying potential non-invasive biomarkers for AD diagnosis and progression. Although this does not directly test hearing-related brain regions, it offers a model for tracking amyloid burden.
In the study, researchers found plaques in the auditory brainstem of mice with hearing changes, suggesting it may be sensitive to disruption from plaques found in Alzheimer's. The plaque in the auditory brainstem reduced the brainstem's ability to coordinate responses to sound. This may explain why Alzheimer's patients have auditory symptoms, according to Patricia White, PhD, professor of Neuroscience and senior author of the study.
The discovery could be a potential biomarker to track disease progression because it could be assessed with amyloid PET imaging. Regular auditory Brainstem Response assessments could help with diagnosis, according to the study's data. The location of the plaques in the brain may be a factor in the variation of hearing loss across the groups.
Additional authors include Jingyuan Zhang, PhD, Holly Beaulac, PhD, Dorota Piekna-Przybylska, PhD, Paige Nicklas, and Amy Kiernan, PhD, of the University of Rochester Medical Center. The findings were made at the White Lab at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester.
While plaques associated with Alzheimer's likely affect hearing by damaging neural circuits involved in auditory processing, the exact relation between plaque location and hearing loss remains under active investigation. The overlap between age-related hearing loss (ARHL) and AD pathology, combined with emerging peripheral biomarkers like amyloid beta in nasal secretions, points to the potential for hearing loss metrics and amyloid biomarkers to be developed as tools for early detection and progression monitoring in Alzheimer's disease.
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