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Research Paper|Volume 17, Issue 11|pp 2664—2687

Infusion of blood from young and old mice modulates amyloid pathology

Matias Pizarro1,2, Ruben Gomez-Gutierrez3, Ariel Caviedes1, Catalina Valdes3, Ute Woehlbier4, Cristian Vargas5, Mauricio Hernandez5, Claudia Duran-Aniotz1, Rodrigo Morales3,6
  • 1Latin American Institute for Brain Health (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile
  • 2Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience (CSCN), School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, Santiago, Chile
  • 3Department of Neurology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA
  • 4Center for Integrative Biology (CIB), Universidad Mayor, Santiago, Chile
  • 5Division of Biotechnology, MELISA Institute, San Pedro de la Paz, Bio-Bio, Chile
  • 6Centro Integrativo de Biología y Química Aplicada (CIBQA), Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins, Santiago, Chile
* Equal contribution
Received: August 12, 2024Accepted: July 30, 2025Published: September 12, 2025

Copyright: © 2025 Pizarro et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the accumulation of misfolded proteins in the brain. Recently, the impact of blood components in the progression of this disease has come to attention. This study investigates the effects of infusing blood from young and old wild-type mice into transgenic mice that model AD brain amyloidosis. Impaired memory and Aβ accumulation were observed in mice infused with blood from old donors. A proteomic analysis in the brain of these mice identified alterations in components related to synaptogenesis and the endocannabinoid system. The α2δ2 protein, associated with neuronal calcium regulation, was validated as a possible mediator of the observed effects. This study highlights the influence of blood in AD pathology and the identification of potential therapeutic targets.