Exploration of the Enteric Nervous System in Alzheimer Disease

The close homology between the central and enteric nervous system suggests that a disease process affecting the central nervous system could also involve its enteric counterpart. The investigators have recently shown in that the enteric neurons can be readily analyzed using routine colonic biopsies. The investigators propose that the enteric nervous system could represent a unique window to assess the neuropathology in living patients with a neurodegenerative disorder. The investigators have already used this approach to show that Parkinson's disease pathology was recapitulated in a single colonic biopsy. By contrast to Parkinson's disease, the detection of Alzheimer's disease pathology in the enteric neurons has so far failed. This may be due to the low number of human tissue samples in addition to the low sensitivity of the immunohistochemical methods that were used. The aim of the current research project will be therefore to reevaluate Alzheimer's disease pathology in a large number of human colonic samples using both a morphological and biochemical approach. The Hypothesis is that the enteric nervous system could represent a unique window to assess the neuropathology in living patients with Alzheimer's disease. This might open the way to the development of novel Alzheimer's disease biomarkers that will directly assess the neuropathological process.