Discovery of elemental metals in brain raises hope for Alzheimer’s treatments
Researchers say this is the first time elemental metals have been confirmed in human brain tissue.
An “unexpected” discovery of tiny metal deposits in their native form in the human brain has raised hopes of potential new therapies for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
An international team of researchers, led by experts at Keele University, have found nanoparticles – around 1/10,000th the size of a pinhead – of elemental copper and iron within the brains of two deceased people with Alzheimer’s.
Metals can occur naturally in the body and are vital for health but they are usually stored as compounds, in oxidised forms.
The researchers said this is the first time elemental metals – metals in their native state – have been confirmed in human brain tissue.
Neil Telling, professor of biomedical nanophysics at Keele University, told the PA News agency: “The discovery of these elemental metallic particles in the brain tissue we studied was very much unexpected.”
The researchers said their findings, published in the journal Science Advances, could help scientists better understand whether elemental metals may be contributing to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and could, in future, facilitate “the development of new therapies to restore metal balance in diseased brains, potentially slowing or preventing the progression of these currently incurable diseases”.
