Do aging-related neuropathologies spread through neuronal synapses?
Do diseases of aging spread between connected brain cells? A fascinating observation is that age-related diseases appear to progress in a manner consistent with broad scale brain connectivity. This is true for both pathological aging processes such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson disease, as well as normal aging, which includes neuronal senescence. However, whether disease spreads directly between connected cells has never been tested. This question is important to answer because if spread occurs specifically through neuronal connections influenced by senescence, these processes may be druggable, and could be used to slow disease progression. We now have the technology to assess whether patterns of senescence-driven changes in neurons spread through neuronal connectivity by harnessing the specificity of trans-synaptic viruses. This project has the potential to reveal key shared mechanisms between normal and pathological aging and provide targets to slow the progression of age-related diseases.
