Pitt Medicine researchers’ findings on brain cells linked to protection against dementia were published in Cell

Hansruedi Mathys, assistant professor of neurobiology in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and his colleagues published a study in the journal Cell that identified a link between two subtypes of inhibitory neurons and a reduced risk of developing dementia — even in those with brain abnormalities linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers know a buildup of sticky amyloid proteins in the brain leads to Alzheimer’s. The clinical presentation of the neurological disease is variable, however: Not everyone with cognitive impairment has amyloid clumps in their brain, and not everyone with amyloid accumulation develops dementia.  

Mathys and colleagues investigated this variability by analyzing a single-cell transcriptomic atlas of the aged human prefrontal cortex. The transcriptional atlas allowed the researchers to annotate which cells are present and in what quantities, as well as the differences in genetic expression between prefrontal cortex samples. This comparison allowed them to identify cell types, genes and pathways that correlated with high cognitive performance in aged individuals, which could be factors linked to preserved cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease.  

Their findings, also covered in Nature, suggest a link between inhibitory neurons and resilience to Alzheimer’s disease pathology.