All day long, our brains carry out complicated and energy-intensive tasks such as remembering, solving problems, and making decisions.

To supply the energy these tasks require while conserving this precious fuel, the brain has evolved a system that allows it to quickly and efficiently send blood only to the areas that need it most in any given moment. This system is essential to brain function and overall health, yet how it works has remained somewhat of a mystery.

Now, a team led by researchers at Harvard Medical School has uncovered new details of how the brain moves blood to active areas in real time. Their findings are published July 16 in Cell.

In experiments in mice, the team discovered that the brain uses specialized channels in the lining of its blood vessels to communicate where blood is needed.

“This work helps us understand how you can get that super-important blood supply to the correct areas of the brain on a time scale that is useful,” said co-lead author Luke Kaplan, a research fellow in neurobiology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS.

If confirmed in additional studies in animals and humans, the findings could be used to better understand findings on brain imaging tests such as functional MRI (fMRI). The insights may also advance understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, in which this communication system often breaks down, leading to cognitive problems.

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(Toronto, Sept. 27, 2022) – Scientists at the Krembil Brain Institute, part of the University Health Network, have proposed a new mechanistic model (AD2) for Alzheimer’s, looking at it not as a brain disease, but as a chronic autoimmune condition that attacks the brain.

This novel research is published today, in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

“We don’t think of Alzheimer’s as fundamentally a disease of the brain. We think of it as a disease of the immune system within the brain,” says Dr. Donald Weaver, co-Director of the Krembil Brain Institute and author of the paper.

Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, impacts more than 50 million people around the world, with a new person being diagnosed every three seconds. Yet, despite more than 200 clinical trials in the past 30 years, there are no disease modifying therapeutics to prevent, halt or treat Alzheimer’s.

(Circa 2022 the immune function and immune molecules have been focused on recently making immunotherapy targets interesting consdering they can help remove plaques)