PV neuron function restored in mice with an Alzheimer’s model — News-Medical

Researchers at UTHealth Houston restored the function of neurons associated with cognitive processes and information processing in mice that reproduced certain key features of Alzheimer’s disease. As News-Medical reports, the findings were published in the journal Neuron.

The role of gamma oscillations

The study focused on the connection between brain gamma oscillations and parvalbumin interneurons, or PV cells. Gamma oscillations are rapid electrical rhythms that occur during learning, memory formation, and information processing. PV cells play a leading role in generating such rhythms.

The study’s first author, Keran Ma, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, noted that gamma oscillations are disrupted in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Such changes may already be present before diagnosis, including in mild cognitive impairment, and are accompanied in the early stages of the disease by progressive dysfunction of PV cells.

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Restoring cell activity

The scientists used mice that were given a human version of the amyloid protein. This caused amyloid plaques to accumulate in the animals’ brains and made it possible to reproduce one of the features characteristic of the disease in humans. The source emphasizes that Alzheimer’s disease is a human condition and does not occur in mice.

The team found that using a sodium channel subunit enhanced the function of PV cells. Their pattern of engagement was then restored, and gamma oscillations in the mice improved. The researchers also found that PV interneurons are activated not simultaneously and uniformly, as previously believed, but sequentially — according to a specific temporal pattern that is important for initiating and maintaining gamma oscillations.

Keran Ma described the findings as proof of the fundamental possibility of influencing PV interneurons to enhance gamma oscillations. The results demonstrate early potential for developing a similar targeted approach for humans; however, the experiment was conducted in an animal model.