a new type of diabetes?

Researchers at Rhode Island Hospital and Brown Medical School have discovered that insulin and its related proteins are produced in the brain, and that reduced levels of both are linked to Alzheimer’s disease. The fi ndings were reported in the December 2005 issue of Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

“What we found is that insulin is not just produced in the pancreas, but also in the brain. And we discovered that insulin and its growth factors, which are necessary for the survival of brain cells, contribute to the progression of Alzheimer’s,” says senior author Suzanne M. de la Monte, a neuropathologist at Rhode Island Hospital and a professor of pathology at Brown Medical School. “This raises the possibility of a new type of diabetes, Type 3.”

It has previously been known that insulin resistance, a characteristic of diabetes, is tied to neurodegeneration. Neurodegeneration is a general term that covers many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases, multiple sclero- sis, and others. While scientists have suspected a link between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, this is the fi rst study to provide evidence of that connection.

By studying a gene abnormality in rats that blocks insulin signaling in the brain, researchers found that insulin and insulin-like growth factors (IGF I & II) are all expressed in neurons in several regions in the brain.

Additionally, researchers determined that a drop in insulin production in the brain contributes to the degeneration of brain cells, an early symptom of Alzheimer’s. “These abnormalities do not correspond to Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, but refl ect a different and more complex disease process that originates in the central nervous system,” the paper states.

By looking at postmortem brain tissue from people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, researchers discovered that growth factors are not produced at normal levels in the hippocampus – the part of the brain responsible for memory. The absence of these growth factors, in turn, causes cells in other parts of the brain to die. Researchers found that insulin and IGF I were signifi cantly reduced in the frontal cortex, hippocampus, and hypothalamus – all areas that are affected by the progression of Alzheimer’s. Conversely, in the cerebellum, which is generally not affected by Alzheimer’s, scientists did not see the same drop in insulin and IGF I.

“Now that scientists have pinpointed insulin and its by Dave Harney a new type of growth factors as contributors to Alzheimer’s, this opens the way for targeted treatment to the brain and changes the way we view Alzheimer’s disease,” de la Monte says.

In an accompanying review article, de la Monte and co-author Jack Wands, MD, of Rhode Island Hospital and Brown Medical School, write that “there is a genuine need for thorough and comprehensive study of the neuropathological changes associated with diabetes mellitus, in the presence or absence of superimposed Alzheimer’s Disease or vascular dementia.”

De la Monte sums up her team’s work, saying: “We’re able to show it’s (Alzheimer’s) linked to poor energy me- tabolism, and it’s linked to abnormalities that contribute to the tangles characteristic of advanced Alzheimer’s disease. This work ties several concepts together and demonstrates that Alzheimer’s disease is quite possibly a Type 3 diabetes.”