In people with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol could hasten the onset of cognitive decline, researchers point out in a recent study.
A few months or a few years: the time frame is still quite vague, but scientists say that alcoholism would have a negative impact on patients likely to develop Alzheimer’s. To reach this conclusion, they made mice consume an amount of alcohol similar to an adult addict, and compared the results in mice carrying genes predisposing to Alzheimer’s and in others not having them.
Alcoholism advances cognitive decline
Several deficiencies have been noted in mice with this genetic particularity: more difficulty in memorizing space, less ability to learn, and an overall cognitive decline that occurred earlier in life. At the level of their brain, these elements were checked, via changes within their prefrontal cortex.
By comparing mice that had the same genetic features predisposing to Alzheimer’s, they found that the alcoholic rodents had features that suggested they were older, with a decline in their cognitive faculties more important than it should have been at their stage. Apart from the interest of understanding the impact of alcohol on the development of Alzheimer’s, the researchers note that these observations could help to better understand the functioning of this disease, which still retains a part of mystery today.
Sources: in Euro
