BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM
In a world-first, British scientists replicated the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease using living human brain tissue — a leap forward in the global race to understand and treat dementia.
This pioneering research, led by a team in Edinburgh, involved exposing healthy brain tissue from living NHS patients to a toxic protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The result: rare, real-time insights into how the disease begins to erode the brain’s intricate cellular networks.
Dr. Claire Durrant, a Race Against Dementia fellow and researcher at the University of Edinburgh, described the experience as “pretty much running back to the lab” with freshly retrieved brain samples, eager to begin what could be a transformative process in dementia science.
From the operating room to microscope
The tissue was gathered from consenting patients undergoing surgery to remove brain tumors at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. During these operations, surgeons removed small fragments of healthy brain tissue that would otherwise be discarded.
Clad in surgical scrubs, scientists stood by in the operating theatre, ready to transfer the precious samples into glass bottles filled with oxygenated artificial spinal fluid. The goal: keep the brain cells alive during a quick dash — often by taxi — back to the lab.
There, researchers sliced the tissue into ultra-thin sections (under one-third of a millimeter thick), placed them in nutrient-rich fluid, and maintained them in incubators at 37 degrees Celsius to mimic natural body conditions. Experiments began almost immediately, with brain samples remaining viable for up to two weeks.
Mimicking Alzheimer’s in real time
The core of the experiment centered on introducing amyloid beta — a protein linked to Alzheimer’s — to the living brain slices. The amyloid beta was extracted from the brains of people who had died with the disease. This allowed researchers to observe how toxic forms of the protein disrupted synapses — the crucial connections between brain cells — in real time.
“We’re trying to mimic Alzheimer’s disease,” Durrant explained.
Their findings were stark. Unlike with normal amyloid beta, the toxic form caused damage that the brain did not attempt to repair. Even small shifts in natural amyloid beta levels were enough to destabilize brain cells. This suggests the brain depends on a finely tuned balance of this protein to function.
Another insight emerged from brain slices taken from the temporal lobe — an area affected early in Alzheimer’s. These samples released higher levels of tau, another key disease protein, potentially explaining why this brain region is particularly vulnerable to early degeneration.
From cells to cures
The implications of this breakthrough are profound. By using living human brain cells, researchers can now observe Alzheimer’s pathology with unprecedented accuracy and speed. That’s a game-changer for drug development, allowing new treatments to be tested directly on human tissue instead of animal models.
“Working alongside the neurosurgical team at the University of Edinburgh, we have shown that living human brain slices can be used to explore fundamental questions relating to Alzheimer’s disease,” Durrant said. “We believe this tool could help accelerate findings from the lab into patients, bringing us one step closer to a world free from the heartbreak of dementia.”
Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, attacks synapses and progressively impairs memory and cognition. With nearly 153 million people expected to be affected by 2050, the need for effective therapies is more urgent than ever.
Powered by partnerships
This research was supported by Race Against Dementia, a charity founded by Formula One legend Sir Jackie Stewart after his wife’s diagnosis, and a one million pound donation from the James Dyson Foundation.
James Dyson praised the project’s innovative use of real human brain tissue, calling it “progress towards solving one of the most devastating problems of our time.”
Professor Tara Spires-Jones, group leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute, echoed the sentiment. “The use of living human tissue samples generously donated by people undergoing surgery… allows scientists to probe how living human brain reacts to toxic proteins produced in Alzheimer’s,” she said. “And in future, [it] will allow testing of whether new treatments are effective in human brain.”
Looking ahead
This technique marks a shift in how Alzheimer’s research is conducted — away from reliance on animal models and toward systems that better reflect human biology. It not only improves the accuracy of experimental findings but may drastically cut the time it takes for discoveries to reach patients.
With this real-time window into Alzheimer’s progression, researchers now have a clearer path to identifying which drugs truly protect brain function. And that means renewed hope — not just for science, but for millions of families worldwide affected by dementia.
