2019 participants
Keval Sidphura
Lewy Body dementia (LBD) consists of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD). DLB is categorised by the aggregation of α-synuclein in intracellular accumulations termed Lewy Bodies, which are thought to damage the brain and cause symptoms experienced by patients. However, we hypothesise that interneurons, which regulate the activity of groups of pyramidal neurons, are damaged in LBD, despite not developing Lewy bodies.
We used post-mortem brain tissue from the prefrontal cortex of LBD patients and determined numbers of pyramidal and inter- neurons with stereology. We found a significant reduction in interneurons in DLB when compared to the unaffected control samples, but no significant loss of pyramidal neurons.
These findings suggest that interneurons, despite not developing Lewy bodies, are subject to neurodegeneration in LBD. These findings suggest interneurons as a novel therapeutic target in LBD, and raise questions about the importance of Lewy bodies in neurodegeneration.
Funding Source: Newcastle University
Project supervisor: Dr Daniel Erskine