Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine discovered a way to make the brain clean up harmful plaques that cause Alzheimer’s disease.
The key is a protein called Sox9. When the level of Sox9 goes up, special support cells in the brain called astrocytes become better at removing the plaques.
In experiments, the scientists used mice that already had memory problems and plaque buildup, just like many patients with Alzheimer’s.
They either raised the amount of Sox9 or reduced it and then watched how the mice performed on memory tests for six months.
When Sox9 was low, plaques piled up quickly and the mice’s memory got worse. When Sox9 was high, the astrocytes cleaned more plaques, kept their shape, and the mice remembered better.
The study shows that boosting Sox9 makes astrocytes act like tiny vacuum cleaners, sucking up the toxic plaques.
This approach is different from most current drugs, which mainly target neurons or try to stop plaques from forming.
More research is needed to see if the same trick works in human brains, but the findings open a new path for treating Alzheimer’s.
The work was funded by several U.S. health agencies and private foundations.