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   Alzheimers News Today   
      
   Reduced Glucose Uptake in Brain Exacerbates Alzheimer’s Disease Symptoms   
      
   MARCH 11TH, 2015 Daniela Semedo, PhD DANIELA SEMEDO, PHD ALZHEIMER'S NEWS,   
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   brainAccording to a recent study from researchers at the Keck School of   
   Medicine of the University of Southern California, reduced expression of a   
   protein called GLUT1, responsible for moving glucose in the brain-blood   
   barrier (BBB) worsens Alzheimer’s    
   disease cerebrovascular degeneration, neuropathology and cognitive function,   
   suggesting that GLUT1 may represent a therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s   
   disease vasculo-neuronal dysfunction and degeneration. The study titled   
   “GLUT1 reductions exacerbate    
   Alzheimer’s disease vasculo-neuronal dysfunction and degeneration,” was   
   published online this week in peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature   
   Neuroscience.   
      
   “Our results suggest that GLUT1 deficiencies at the blood-brain barrier are   
   not just symptoms of Alzheimer’s but, in fact, lead to a series of vascular   
   injuries that worsen the effects of the disease,” said Berislav V. Zlokovic,   
   M.D., Ph.D.,    
   director of the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute (ZNI) at the Keck School of   
   Medicine, the Mary Hayley and Selim Zilkha Chair for Alzheimer’s Disease   
   Research and the study’s principal investigator. “We do not know yet   
   whether medicine can restore    
   GLUT1 expression, but we believe that targeting the protein may help prevent   
   Alzheimer’s from getting worse among individuals predisposed to develop the   
   disease.”   
      
   Estimates for Alzheimer’s disease show that the condition affects   
   approximately 5.2 million people of all ages in the United States, and   
   researchers believe that the disease will affect 16 million Americans aged   
   over 65 years by 2050. Alzheimer’s    
   disease causes progressive and irreversible memory, thinking and behavior   
   impairments. GLUT1 helps glucose, the brains energy source, to move across the   
   BBB, a layer in the brain that averts the entry of pathogens and blood into   
   the brain.   
      
   For the study, the research team found that GLUT1 insufficiency caused reduced   
   glucose uptake in mice over expressing amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) leading to   
   diminished neuronal activity, behavioral deficits, and progressive neuronal   
   loss and    
   neurodegeneration,   
      
   Results also revealed that GLUT1 deficiency in endothelium, but not in   
   astrocytes, initiates the vascular phenotype as shown by BBB breakdown.   
   Alzheimer’s disease occurs due to accumulation of amyloid-beta peptide in   
   the brain facilitated by breakdown    
   of the BBB.  Future studies could involve the identification of the metabolic   
   pathways by which GLUT1 deficits influence metabolism and if early embryonic   
   GLUT1 damage disturbs the central nervous system differently than a defect   
   experienced later during    
   development.   
      
   http://alzheimersnewstoday.com/2015/03/11/reduced-glucose-uptake   
   in-brain-exacerbates-alzheimers-disease-symptoms/   
      
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