A team of researchers led by scientists at Australia’s University of New South Wales (UNSW) has discovered how connections between brain cells are destroyed in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease - work that opens up a new avenue for research on possible treatments for the degenerative brain condition. "One of the first signs of Alzheimer's disease is the loss of synapses - the structures that connect neurons in the brain," says study leader, Dr. Vladimir Sytnyk, of the UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences. "Synapses are required for all brain functions, and particularly for learning and forming memories. In Alzheimer's disease, this loss of synapses occurs very early on, when people still only have mild cognitive impairment, and long before the nerve cells themselves die. "We have identified a new molecular mechanism which directly contributes to this synapse loss - a discovery we hope could eventually lead to earlier diagnosis of the disease and new treatments." The team studied a protein in the brain called neural cell adhesion molecule 2 (NCAM2) - one of a family of molecules that physically connects the membranes of synapses and help stabilise these long lasting synaptic contacts between neurons. The research was published online on November 27, 2015 in an open-access article Nature Communications. The article is titled “Aβ-Dependent Reduction of NCAM2-Mediated Synaptic Adhesion Contributes to Synapse Loss in Alzheimer’s Disease.” Using post-mortem brain tissue from people with and without the condition, they discovered that synaptic NCAM2 levels in the part of the brain known as the hippocampus were low in those with Alzheimer's disease.Login Or Register To Read Full Story