Jaime Ramos Cejudo, PhD, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, describes how depression can reshape vascular mechanisms within the brain. Research using animal models to study how blood flow is affected by the environment found that, even at early stages, changes in blood circulation can be seen following anxiety- or stress-inducing situations. It is believed that depression can increase the production of amyloid-beta (Aβ) which accumulates within perivascular spaces, eventually overwhelming the microglial response to capture and remove Aβ. The team have demonstrated that reduced plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio is consistently associated with late-life major depressive disorder diagnosis and that increased severity of depression at baseline predicted low Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio at 3 years. The hypothesis that depressive symptoms may drive plasma Aβ dynamics should be explored in further studies. This interview took place at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference® (AAIC) 2023 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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