80% of people with Alzheimer’s disease experience disruption to the body’s circadian rhythm, the internal biological clock that regulates many of our physiological processes. For the moment, no treatment is capable of targeting these disturbances. But Dr. Paula Desplats, professor of neuroscience at the University of California at San Diego, shows, in a study carried out on mice, that it is possible to correct these circadian disruptions thanks to a type of intermittent fasting.
Fewer amyloid proteins in the brain
In this study, published in the journal Cell metabolism, mice fed on a time-restricted schedule showed improvements in memory and reduced accumulation of amyloid proteins in the brain.
See you again @UCSDMedSchool study has shown in mice that it is possible to correct the circadian disruptions seen in Alzheimer’s disease with time-restricted eating, a type of intermittent fasting without limiting food consumed. https://t.co/l9ij3UoGWP#AlzheimerResearch#Alzheimer
— UC San Diego (@UCSanDiego) August 31, 2023
“For years we assumed that the circadian disruptions seen in people with Alzheimer’s were the result of neurodegeneration. But we now understand that it could be the opposite: circadian disruptions could be one of the main drivers of Alzheimer’s disease” explains Professor Desplats. “Anything we can do to help patients restore their circadian rhythm will make a huge difference in the way we manage the disease,” she adds.
14 hours of fasting and 10 hours of eating
For California researchers, one way to do this is to control the daily cycle of eating and fasting. They tested this strategy on mice with Alzheimer’s disease, feeding them during a 6-hour window each day. In humans, this would translate to about 14 hours of fasting per day.
Compared to control mice that received food at all hours, mice following intermittent fasting had better memory, more regular sleep, were less hyperactive at night, and suffered fewer sleep disturbances.
They also found that this type of diet helped reduce the amount of amyloid protein accumulated in the brain.
These results will probably lead to a clinical trial on humans.
Source : Circadian modulation by time-restricted feeding rescues brain pathology and improves memory in mouse models of Alzheimer’s diseaseCell metabolism, August 2023