Brain cells talk to each other, and scientists have developed a way to listen in as neurons communicate in color-coded conversation – increasing hope for improved ways to treat brain and neurological conditions such as depression, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Credit goes to a new technique researchers have developed to visualize acetylcholine, a poorly understood neurotransmitter that “has an important role in how we behave because it affects our memory and mood,” said Dr. J. Julius Zhu of the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Department of Pharmacology. “It affects Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, emotions, depression, all kind of emotion-related diseases and mental problems.”
Zhu worked with a team at his school in Charlottesville, Va., and colleagues in China to test the breakthrough, a method that involves using fluorescent color to observe neuron activity.
“Before, we didn’t have any way to understand how [such neurotransmissions] work,” said Zhu. “In the case of Alzheimer’s, in particular, we spent billions of dollars and we have almost no effective treatment. … Now, for the first time, we can see what is happening.”
Acetylcholine is also a factor in regulating blood pressure and stress, controlling insulin secretion in the pancreas and other critical bodily functions.
Drugs designed to combat Alzheimer’s disease inhibit acetylcholinesterase – an enzyme that “degrades” acetylcholine – in order to increase the effect of diminishing amounts of acetylcholine being released in the brain, Zhu said. But physicians don’t completely understood how the drugs work, and there has been no way to figure out exactly how much inhibition is needed.
“These drugs are not very effective,” said Zhu. “They only offer a minor improvement, and once you stop the drug [the symptoms] just seem much worse. So probably in trying to treat these patients, you temporarily enhance them but you actually make them even worse.”
