{"id":247289,"date":"2026-11-13T19:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T01:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/hamster-hibernation-study-offers-clues-to-alzheimers-disease"},"modified":"2026-11-13T19:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T01:11:13","slug":"hamster-hibernation-study-offers-clues-to-alzheimers-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/hamster-hibernation-study-offers-clues-to-alzheimers-disease","title":{"rendered":"Hamster hibernation study offers clues to Alzheimer\u2019s disease"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Researchers at VIB and KU Leuven have discovered that hibernation triggers changes in brain cells that partially resemble those in Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Studying golden hamsters, the team identified changes in gene expression across the hibernation cycle, which resemble those associated with the accumulation of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>The findings, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.aeg3486\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Science Advances<\/i>, suggest that some early cellular changes associated with Alzheimer\u2019s may also occur as part of a natural adaptive response, offering new ways to study the disease for therapy development.<\/p>\n<p>Alzheimer\u2019s disease affects millions of people worldwide and is characterized by the buildup of amyloid-\u03b2 plaques and tangled tau proteins in the brain. These tangles contain abnormally phosphorylated tau\u2014a form of the protein carrying excessive phosphate groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at VIB and KU Leuven have discovered that hibernation triggers changes in brain cells that partially resemble those in Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Studying golden hamsters, the team identified changes in gene expression across the hibernation cycle, which resemble those associated with the accumulation of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer\u2019s. The findings, published in Science Advances, suggest [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}