An invertebrate from the Venice lagoon helps understand Alzheimer's disease

A small invertebrate living in marine environments such as the Venice lagoon could give new impetus to research into human neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, according to a study published in Cells by an international research team coordinated by Lucia Manni of the University of Padua and including Stanford University and Milan State University.

The botryl is a very simple creature that has a rudimentary brain composed of just under a thousand neurons, which age like those of humans. It grows and reproduces at shallow depths in seas such as the Mediterranean and, in particular, in nutrient-rich and warm areas of the Adriatic Sea such as the Venice lagoon.

The researchers studied the botryl using electron microscopy and gene expression analysis, and found that it "naturally undergoes neurodegeneration in ways that could help research in humans to identify strategies, or drugs, to stop serious neurodegenerative diseases," Manni notes.

"In particular, botryl neurons show different types of cell death, as also happens in human neurodegenerative diseases," she continues. "Moreover, genes critically involved in these diseases are expressed at different stages of the botryl life cycle according to timings that closely resemble the progression of diseases in humans. For example, genes typical of conformational disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, are expressed in the botryl at times that in humans evoke the disease transition from a pre-clinical degeneration phase to the appearance of specific syndromes."

"These results could open unprecedented scenarios both in the identification of a lowest common denominator among very dissimilar human pathologies and in the use of new methods of non-invasive electrical brain stimulation for the prevention and treatment of neurodegeneration," said Alberto Priori of Milan State University, co-author of the research.