Why Are Women More Likely to Develop Alzheimer’s Disease? Here’s What a New Study of Female Mice Reveals

A recently published study provided a clear answer to the mystery involving the cause of Alzheimer's disease in women that has puzzled many for decades already.

As specified in a EurekAlert! report, epidemiological studies have shown that women are twice as possible as men to develop AD, although the cause of such a phenomenon has remained unclear.

Incorporating their previous research, Professor Keqiang Ye from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology or SIAT of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who led the study, and his team established the theory that the C/EBPβ/AEPpathway is the central factor that drives the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases.

Based on this theory, he explained that their team looked for female hormones that are drastically changed during menopause and tested which hormone is selectively activating the C/EBPβ/AEP pathway.

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Recent basic science and clinical data proposed the probability that estrogen may be helpful both in the prevention and treatment of AD, and such potential impacts may encourage the use of estrogen in women who are postmenopausal.

Follicle-Stimulating Hormone Identified

In their study published in Nature, Professor Ye and the team were able to identify FSH or follicle-stimulating hormone as the "major pathogenic factor."

According to the co-corresponding author of the study, Dr. Zaidi Mone, this results in Aβ and Tau pathologies, resulting in AD development. Dr. Mone is also a tenured professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

The study authors used different approaches to demonstrate their results. Using ovariectomized mice, they used anti-FSH antibody therapeutic to block FSH and deactivate the C/EBPβ/AEP pathway.

They deleted the FSH receptor or FSHR expression in neurons to eliminate the binding of FSH to FSHR in the hippocampus.

Both approaches eased pathology and cognitive dysfunction. Furthermore, knockdown of C/EBPβ in the Alzheimer's disease mice model reduced AD pathologies.

AD Linked to Menopause

Aside from working with female mice, the study investigators injected FSH into male mice and found that FSH promoted AD pathologies.

All findings proposed that increased FSH following menopause binds to FSHR in neurons and activates the C/EBPβ/AEP pathway, which plays a vital role in stimulating AD pathology.

The team said in the near future; they will focus on dissecting the association between particular risk genes like ApoE4 and FSH to explore the reason female ApoE4 carriers are more susceptible to developing AD.

According to Emory University's Dr. Seong Su Kang, the findings reveal that the C/EBPβ/AEP signaling pathway functions as a central factor in these age-reliant diseases, which may help reveal how a variety of risk factors mediate neurodegenerative disorders through activation of this pathway.

Additionally, Professor Ye's team extends this assumption to several age-reliant chronic diseases like diabetes, atherosclerosis, aging, and cancer.

AD in Women

A study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology specified that progressive and irreversible dementia of AD affects both males and females.

Women may have comparatively more language impairment and are inclined to greater psychiatric engagement. Diagnosis is detected by recognizing clinical structures and omission of other causes of dementia. The disease's etiology, as the report's writing, remained unknown.

However, a variety of genetic factors is even more suspected; no diagnostic test was at that time recommended. Recent basic science and clinical data proposed the probability that estrogen may be helpful both in the prevention and treatment of AD, and such potential impacts may encourage the use of estrogen in women who are postmenopausal.

Related information about women being more susceptible to developing Alzheimer's is shown on Al Jazeera English's YouTube video below:

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Check out more news and information on Alzheimer's Disease in Science Times.