Experiments with tiny roundworms give researchers hope.

Caenorhabditis elegans is a tiny worm that lives in the soil, but can also be found a lot in laboratories. Scientists love to experiment with the small roundworm, which is easy to store and adapt, reproduces quickly and frequently and is also transparent. One of the labs in which many of these roundworms are present belongs to the research team of Professor Jessica Tanis of the University of Delaware. She and her team are using the roundworms to gain more insight into Alzheimer’s disease. And that more or less accidentally led to a fascinating discovery. For example, the experiments cautiously suggest that there is a link between Alzheimer’s and the well-known vitamin B12.

About Alzheimer

Alzheimer’s is a common disease that researchers still don’t understand exactly how it develops. It is now clear that the disease is associated with an accumulation of beta-amyloid proteins in the brain. This accumulation then leads to damage to the cells, which in turn results in cognitive complaints.

Roundworms with Alzheimer’s

That damage done by beta-amyloid proteins is also C. elegans not strange. “The worms respond to beta-amyloids like humans do,” Tanis says. But where the accumulation of beta-amyloids in humans can take ten to twenty years, it is much faster with the roundworms. When roundworms make the beta-amyloid proteins, they become paralyzed within 36 hours of reaching adulthood.

Partly because roundworms go so fast, they lend themselves very well to research into the origin and progression of Alzheimer’s. And Tanis and colleagues were particularly interested in the role genetic factors play in this when they stumbled upon something odd. Two breeding tanks contained roundworms that were all of the same age, had the same genetic background, followed the same diet, and which the researchers expected would simultaneously be confronted with Alzheimer’s and thus paralysis. But that didn’t happen; while the worms in one container became paralyzed, the worms in the other container simply continued to wriggle for a while. “It was an observation from my master’s student Kirsten Kervin,” Tanis says. “She repeated the experiment again and again and each time with the same results.”

Vitamin B12

How is that possible? After additional research, the researchers are now out. Although both groups were fed the same diet – E. colibacteria – only one group was fed a E. colistrain that contained just a little more B12 than the others. And that vitamin appears to have a positive effect in some cases – at least among roundworms.

Economical

“When we gave vitamin B12 to worms that had a B12 deficiency, the paralysis occurred much more slowly,” Tanis says. “That immediately told us that B12 was beneficial. The worms with B12 also had more energy and less oxidative stress in their cells.” Follow-up research further shows that extra B12 only has a positive effect on roundworms that have too little of this vitamin; roundworms with healthy B12 levels did not benefit.

It is still unclear why roundworms with a B12 deficiency develop Alzheimer’s more slowly after administration of extra B12. It has been established that the vitamin in any case has no influence on the extent to which beta-amyloids accumulate. More research is desperately needed. For example, follow-up research should also show whether the vitamin can also affect other neurodegenerative disorders – such as ALS or Parkinson’s.

While there is still a lot of work to be done, Tanis is determined to persevere. “Right now there is no effective treatment for Alzheimer’s. And there are certain factors that you cannot change. You cannot change that you are getting older. And you cannot change the fact that you have an increased risk of Alzheimer’s because of your genes. But what you do have control over is what you eat. If people can change their diet to influence the onset of the disease, that would be fantastic news.”