The reason why more women have Alzheimer’s disease than men | Scientific minute

New research published in the journal ‘Nature’ now shows The reason why more women have Alzheimer’s disease than men, and specifically, that the pituitary hormone FSH has a key role in Alzheimer’s disease. But how so?
Human menopause is associated with an increase in incidence, speed of progression and burden of symptoms of the neurodegenerative disorder Alzheimer’s disease.
The cognitive decline observed even in the years before the onset of menopause is strongly associated with an increase in the levels of follicle-stimulating hormone, or FSH in short, which is made by the pituitary gland.
The scientists behind this research were able to show that FSH triggers features of Alzheimer’s disease by acting on neuronal FSH receptors in the most vulnerable brain regions, including the hippocampus and cortex.
These features occur through the upregulation of the transcription factor C/EBPβ and the enzyme δ-secretase, which is known to cleave amyloid precursor protein (APP) to produce amyloid-β plaques, and cleaves the protein Tau, to produce neurofibrillary tangles.
Blocking the action of FSH, or reducing the expression of the FSH receptor in the hippocampus, significantly reduces features similar to those of Alzheimer’s disease in mice.
Therefore, FSH acts on neurons in the mouse brain to cause features of Alzheimer’s and suggests that, if the results translate to humans, a therapy that blocks FSH might help to prevent Alzheimer’s disease in post-menopausal individuals.

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Link to the original study:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04463-0

Study title:
FSH blockade improves cognition in mice with Alzheimer’s disease

Study authors:
Jing Xiong, Seong Su Kang, Zhihao Wang, Xia Liu, Tan-Chun Kuo, Funda Korkmaz, Ashley Padilla, Sari Miyashita, Pokman Chan, Zhaohui Zhang, Pavel Katsel, Jocoll Burgess, Anisa Gumerova, Kseniia Ievleva, Damini Sant, Shan-Ping Yu, Valeriia Muradova, Tal Frolinger, Daria Lizneva, Jameel Iqbal, Ki A. Goosens, Sakshi Gera, Clifford J. Rosen, Vahram Haroutunian, Vitaly Ryu, Tony Yuen, Mone Zaidi & Keqiang Ye