The project Glymphatic system – a factor in dementia development is about moving forward with methods to investigate the Glymphatic system in humans. Hopefully this will be new tools for diagnoses and treatments, says Anders Eklund, professor at Umeå University and project manager. The research group is already a world leader in research on hydrocephalus, which is a disease with disturbance of pressure and flow in the cerebrospinal fluid system. Within this work, advanced methods have been created to investigate the cerebrospinal fluid system in patients. The group has broad expertise in flow dynamics and in clinical brain imaging.
The project is a collaboration between Region Västerbotten, the company Likvor and Umeå University, where the disciplines of medical technology, neurology, radiology-nuclear medicine and physics participate. Professor Anders Eklund at the Department of Radiation Sciences is the main applicant. Co-applicants are Jan Malm, Katrine Riklund, Magnus Andersson and Anders Wåhlin.
The brain and spinal cord are surrounded by a water-like fluid called cerebrospinal fluid. In an animal study, scientists in the United States have recently shown that the fluid also flushes through the brain and may possibly function as a brain’s cleaning system. In dementia diseases such as Alzheimer’s, so-called plaques are formed in the brain. They are an accumulation of certain proteins. One hypothesis is that in a healthy person, those proteins are flushed away when the cerebrospinal fluid flushes through the brain tissue. This rinse, the “brain washing machine”, is called the Glymphatic system. Dementia could then be partly explained by a disturbed Glymphatic system.
Link to Umeå University which published the news: https://www.umu.se/nyheter/strategiska-miljoner-till-forskning-om-hjarnfloden_8312661/