China News Service, Hong Kong, November 5th. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) said on the 5th that the school’s research team has devised a new method for studying the brain, which will not only help assess the effects of potential drugs on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients As a result, a new target for the treatment of AD was discovered, opening up a new path for the research and drug development of Alzheimer's disease.
According to a press release issued by the University of Science and Technology that day, research on the pathological mechanism of Alzheimer's disease has been carried out for decades, but there is still no effective treatment method.
Traditional research methods have certain limitations in judging whether molecular targets can be applied to drug development.
For example, in molecular and pathological research, the brains of AD patients are analyzed as a whole, but the effects of different types of brain cells and their abnormal changes on AD are often overlooked, especially those with a small number and Such as microglia and 1% endothelial cells which account for only 5% of the total brain cells.
HKUST stated that the research team led by the Vice President of Research and Development of HKUST, Director of the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience and Professor Chenxing Ye Yuru of the Department of Life Sciences has recently not only solved this problem, but also discovered endothelial cells and microglia. A number of potential new molecular targets can be used to develop drugs for the treatment of AD.
Ye Yuru's team used advanced single-cell transcriptome analysis technology to analyze the function of specific cells in the brains of AD patients' remains.
This technology allows researchers to track molecular changes in the brain that cannot be observed with traditional tools at the single-cell level.
The research team conducted a comprehensive analysis of the transcriptome changes of specific cells in the brains of AD patients, found the cell subtypes and pathological pathways related to AD, and discovered the role of endothelial cell subsets in the cerebral blood vessels.
The University of Science and Technology stated that the study found for the first time that the natural renewal process of blood vessels and the immune activation in endothelial cell subsets are related to the pathogenesis of AD, showing that there is a connection between vascular disorders and Alzheimer's disease.
Research has also discovered new molecular targets that can help restore the neural homeostasis of AD patients.
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