A major mystery in Alzheimerâs disease research is why some brain cells succumb to the creeping pathology of the disease years before symptoms first appear, while others seem impervious to the degeneration surrounding them until the diseaseâs final stages. Â
An image of human brain samples used to study why some brain cells are more vulnerable to Alzheimerâs disease than others.
Image by Rana Eser, UCSF Grinberg lab
Now, in a study published Jan. 10, 2021, in
Nature Neuroscience, a team of molecular biologists and neuropathologists from the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences have joined forces to identify for the first time the neurons that are among the first victims of the disease ââ¯accumulating toxic âtanglesâ and dying off earlier than neighboring cells. Â