Identical Signs of Brain Damage in Sleep Apnea and Alzheimer's

A study published in Sleep confirms associations between obstructive sleep apnea and Alzheimer's disease, reports Medical News Today . Postmortem analysis of brain samples revealed that the severity of the disease correlates with reductions in the volume of the hippocampus. Amyloid plaques initially manifest in the same locations and spread in the same way in the brains of people with sleep apnea as they do in those with Alzheimer's. "It's an important advance in our understanding of the links between these conditions and opens up new directions for researchers striving to develop therapies for treating and hopefully preventing Alzheimer's disease," said RMIT University Professor Stephen Robinson. Sleep apnea did not correlate as well with the number of neurofibrillary tangles in subjects' hippocampus, and no significant correlation was observed after adjusting for age. "In cases of mild sleep apnea, we could only find plaques and tangles in the cortical area near the hippocampus, precisely where they are first found in Alzheimer's disease," Robinson noted. The investigators suggest that in sleep apnea, repeated bouts of oxygen deprivation during sleep may trigger oxidative stress that leads to the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the hippocampus.