{"id":75797,"date":"2025-09-22T10:18:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T17:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=75797"},"modified":"2025-09-22T10:18:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T17:18:39","slug":"alzheimers-glucose-metabolism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/alzheimers-glucose-metabolism\/","title":{"rendered":"This breakthrough tool could detect early signs of Alzheimer\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAU researchers are experimenting with new technology that could help medical providers easily detect Alzheimer\u2019s disease early and prevent its advance.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Led by <\/span>Travis Gibbons<\/span><\/b>, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, and fueled in part by a grant from the Arizona Alzheimer\u2019s Association, the research project centers on the brain\u2019s metabolism\u2014specifically, how it uses glucose, the sugar that fuels our thoughts, movements and emotions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe brain is like a muscle,\u201d Gibbons said. \u201cIt needs fuel to do work, and its gasoline is blood glucose. A healthy brain is greedy; it burns through glucose fast. But brain metabolism is slower when you have Alzheimer\u2019s. It can be viewed as a canary in the coal mine in the development of the disease.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The brain is hard to access, so studying its glucose metabolism has long been a challenge for biological researchers. In the past, scientists have threaded catheters into veins in patients\u2019 necks to sample blood as it exits the brain, an invasive procedure that can\u2019t exactly be done at a routine checkup.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Gibbons and his team at NAU are pioneering a more accessible approach, thanks to new commercially available kits that can isolate and test microvesicles that circulate in the blood.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these microvesicles originate in a neuron in your brain, and they\u2019re like messengers carrying cargo,\u201d Gibbons explained. \u201cWith these test kits, we can find what kind of cargo is in a microvesicle and run tests on it. It\u2019s been described as a biopsy for the brain, but much less invasive. That\u2019s the appeal of it.\u201d\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This technique, while still in development, could revolutionize how doctors detect and monitor Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Gibbons said the process is complex, requiring precision and patience, but the potential is enormous.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a previous study, Gibbons and his colleagues administered insulin through the nose, a method that allows the insulin to reach the brain more effectively than traditional injections. Afterward, his team sampled blood exiting those subjects\u2019 brains and found biomarkers indicating improved neuroplasticity. Now, they\u2019re working to detect those same markers in microvesicles.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The research is unfolding in stages. First, Gibbons is testing the method in healthy individuals. Then, he\u2019ll compare results across people with mild cognitive impairment and people who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s, hoping to track the disease\u2019s progression through changes in glucose metabolism.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBrain function is notoriously hard to measure, but we\u2019re getting better and better at interrogating brain function through biomarkers,\u201d Gibbons said. \u201cSoon, we might be able to help people protect their brain health and prevent Alzheimer\u2019s disease the same way we protect people from cardiovascular disease by prescribing moderate exercise and a healthy diet. That will help us manage the burden on aging people and society as a whole.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gibbons, a member of the Arizona Alzheimer\u2019s Consortium (AAC), is working on the study with <\/span>Emily Cope<\/span><\/b>, an NAU associate professor of biological sciences and fellow AAC member; <\/span>K. Riley Connor<\/span><\/b>, a Ph.D. student in biological sciences at NAU; and Philip Ainslie, a professor at the University of British Columbia\u2019s Centre for Heart, Lung & Vascular Health.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n


\nJill Kimball | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAU researchers are experimenting with new technology that could help medical providers easily detect Alzheimer\u2019s disease early and prevent its advance.\u00a0 Led by Travis Gibbons, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, and fueled in part by a grant from the Arizona Alzheimer\u2019s Association, the research project centers on the brain\u2019s metabolism\u2014specifically, how…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":75805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}