Scientists Uncover Brain’s Waste-Disposal System!

Scientists Uncover Brain's Waste-Disposal System!
Scientists Uncover Brain's Waste-Disposal System!

United States: Our brain has a wipe-out mechanism which removes toxic proteins that cause dementia and Alzheimer’s, says a study. Using imaging scans, scientists identified a detailed map of tubular fluid kcal mainstay along arteries and veins in the brain, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As reported by the HealthDay, these structures enable the flow of the cerebral spinal fluid through the brain and may help wash out waste proteins such as amyloid and tau, the researchers said.

Those toxic proteins accumulate in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and form plaques and tangles, which are characteristic of the disease.

Prior studies documented these kind of fluid channels in mouse brains, but this is the first study to prove their existence in humans, scientists added.

“Nobody has demonstrated it before now,” said Juan Piantino, senior researcher and an associate professor of pediatrics, neurology in Oregon Health & Science University, School Of Medicine, USA.

“This means that cerebrospinal fluid is not just floating into the brain like you might throw a sponge into a bucket of water,” Piantano contributed to a university press release. “It goes through these channels.”

In the study, the scientists administered five patients who were at OHSU for a brain operation, with a tracer that will move with CSF into the brain.

The research team then placed the tracer into the saline solution and injected it into the animals’ bodies so that the team could then monitor the progression of the tracer through the various parts of the brain using MRI scans.

They visualized that the CSF flowed in well-organized pathways in the brain territory known as the perivascular spaces.

“You can actually see dark perivascular spaces in the brain turn bright,” first author of the study Dr.Kurt Yamamoto of the neurological surgery in the OHSU School of Medicine pointed out.

 Researchers believe the pathways help flush out waste that’s been generate by the brain which is similar to the way the lymphatic system flushes waste generated by the immune system throughout the body.

“people thought these perivascular spaces were important but it had never been proven,”Piantino said and now it has.”

Future research can focus on the ways to improve this waste-disposal system in the brain said the researchers.

For Example, the quality of the sleep is believed to help the system better flush waste the proteins out of the brain, they said.