People With Alzheimer’s Disease Perceive Pain Differently
New research at King’s College London has found that in a mouse model for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), pain signals are processed differently, due to a lack of the protein TLR4 in the immune cells of the central nervous system. This finding, indicating altered pain perception in AD, could lead to changes in pain management and treatment for people with AD, potentially improving their quality of life.
Recent findings from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) suggest differences in the way pain signals are processed in a mouse model emulating Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), compared to healthy mice.
The study, which was published in Nature Communications, suggests that the perception of pain in individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease may be altered. This leads to the question of whether adjusting pain management strategies for Alzheimer’s patients could improve their quality of life.
While chronic musculoskeletal pain is common in individuals with AD, it remains largely untreated as it can go unreported due to the cognitive deficits attached to the disease.
In this study, the researchers sought to explore whether there is also an alteration in the body’s response to pain by the nervous system in people with AD.
In healthy mice, pain signals are transmitted from the point of origin to the central nervous system to initiate an immune response. The protein Galectin-3 has been demonstrated to be responsible for pain signal transmission to the spinal cord. Upon reaching the spinal cord, it binds to another protein, TLR4, to initiate the immune response. Read more...
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