Party Pooper

In my July 13 post, I wrote about how the glymphatic system removes amyloids and other undesirable substances from the brain during deep sleep.  That's good, except that it appears that there are problems with complete removal of this stuff in older people -- and it aggravates disease.  This is discussed in a recent article in ALZForum that addressed some recent research with mice.

When the cerebrospinal fluid of the glymphatic system collects waste material, it delivers it to the lymph system for complete removal from the central nervous system.  The hand-off occurs with a hidden set of lymphatic vessels in the meninges, the membranes that line the skull and envelope the brain. 

The results of a recent study were discussed in an article in the July 25 issue of Nature, which found that artificially reducing the effectiveness of the hand-off apparently caused greater accumulation of amyloids in the brain and more rapid aging.  Researchers found a likely correlation between reduced effectiveness of the hand-off and reduced cognition.  Some researchers commented that “The finding has implications for normal aging and disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.”