New research reveals that the brains of three separate stranded dolphin species show classic Alzheimer’s disease indicators in humans.
The stranding of dolphins may result from a neurological impairment, comparable to that caused by Alzheimer’s disease.
Stranded Dolphins May Suffer Alzheimer’s Disease
The European Journal of Neuroscience released a study with data from five species of dolphins and whales, including Risso’s dolphins, long-finned pilot whales, white-beaked dolphins, harbor porpoises, and bottlenose dolphins.
It discovered that four dolphins across two species exhibited some of the same brain abnormalities in humans with Alzheimer’s disease.
The Moredun Research Institute worked with the Universities of St. Andrews and Edinburgh to conduct this study. In some species of odontocete, the results may help explain unexplained live-stranding episodes.
However, making a definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in animals remains challenging, leading to the widespread belief that the condition is human only.
Neurologists, therefore, have established a connection between these signs and the buildup of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain’s grey matter.
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Typical Symptoms
In addition to neurodegeneration, gliosis, an increase in glial cell counts in the central nervous system as a protective mechanism can be observed in Alzheimer’s patients.
Neurological symptoms like those seen in humans have been seen in odontocetes, suggesting these animals are at risk for the same degenerative disorder. As a matter of fact, pods of whales, dolphins, and porpoises are frequently observed stranded in shallow waters or on beaches all over the UK’s coastline.
Animal rescue groups will attempt to relocate these animals to safer, deeper waters, but tragically, not all of them will make it. It’s a case of a dominant animal in the group getting a neurological condition and leading the others into potentially fatal shallow water.
Researchers wanted to see if there was a connection between strandings and the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in their study, which was published in the European Journal of Neuroscience. They did this by checking the brain pathology of animals that had become stranded for symptoms of the degenerative neurological illness.
The five species represented by the specimens were the Risso’s dolphin, the long-finned pilot whale, the white-beaked dolphin, the harbor porpoise, and the bottlenose dolphin. All 18 aged mice had amyloid-beta plaques, but only three had neurofibrillary tangles and other hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.
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