Sad Science Fiction Plot Becomes Reality: Space Radiation Could Cause Alzheimer’s

Mice exposed to radiation were more likely to fail memory tests and develop brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's.

By Rebecca Boyle Posted 01.03.2013 at 4:02 pm 5 Comments

Planet of the Apes Wikipedia

So much great science fiction takes place when Earth is either gone or forgotten. Having ruined the planet and other life on it, people have to leave and go elsewhere, only to return and encounter a changed place. Sometimes spacefaring people even “discover” a planet, only to find out it’s actually Earth (see: Planet of the Apes, the forthcoming After Earth, etc.). Now a new study seems to fit this sad plot line exquisitely well: People traveling in space may be more likely to develop the memory-destroying scourge of Alzheimer’s disease. We could leave Earth and then, late in life, forget it.

Earth’s magnetic fields deflect cosmic and solar rays, protecting those of us living on the planet and in orbit just above it. But astronauts traveling to Mars, or living in deep space for the long haul, will live in a constant barrage of cosmic radiation from which there is no escape. The prevailing concern is the risk of cancer, caused by high-energy protons interfering with space travelers’ DNA. There is, however, also a clear risk of neurological damage, which would stem from inflammation in the central nervous system. Chronic neuroinflammation is thought to play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Led by Dr. M. Kerry O'Banion, a neurobiology professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center, a team of researchers set out to determine the cognitive changes that may result from exposure to cosmic radiation. They took 29 male and 20 female mice that were genetically modified to express a suite of conditions that predispose them to Alzheimer’s, and exposed them to varying levels of radiation using the Space Radiation Laboratory equipment at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

For their space radiation analogue, the team went with highly energetic heavy iron ions, which could come from distant supernovae. They would also be more dangerous than other highly energetic particles because they’d easily penetrate most shielding equipment. “One would have to essentially wrap a spacecraft in a six-foot block of lead or concrete,” O’Banion said in a statement.

The mice got zapped, eight at a time, through styrofoam tubes. A control group sat next to the tubes but didn’t get a beam of iron ions. The doses were designed to mimic high levels of charged particles that would accumulate during a long-term mission. Then, the mice were shipped back to Rochester, where O’Banion and his colleagues performed a series of tests. Mice had to recall objects, specific locations, or events, and the ones that were exposed to radiation could not do it very well.

This was one indication that radiation impaired their cognitive function, so to see whether they suffered physiological Alzheimer-like effects, O’Banion and the team had to examine their brains. It turned out the male mice in particular developed high levels of beta amyloid, the protein “plaque" that accumulates in the brain in Alzheimer’s. This is the first time any researchers have seen enhanced plaque due to radiation exposure.

“These findings clearly suggest that exposure to radiation in space has the potential to accelerate the development of Alzheimer's disease,” O'Banion said. “This is yet another factor that NASA, which is clearly concerned about the health risks to its astronauts, will need to take into account as it plans future missions.”

There is one key difference between this study and the real-life experience of long-distance travelers, and that’s time. The mice were subjected to high doses of radiation that were meant to mimic the levels a person would experience in long-duration flight, such as the two-year minimum travel time to and from Mars. What’s more, the mice in question were models of Alzheimer’s, meaning they were predisposed to the disease--and astronauts would likely not be. Still, it shows that space travelers could have a “heightened chance of debilitating dementia occurring long after the mission is over,” the authors write in their paper, published this week in PLoS One.

And that’s where it sets up the cruelest irony: Space travelers who venture beyond our planet will go because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, something they’d never forget. But because of the trip, they will.

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5 Comments

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Robot

01/03/13 at 5:14 pm

The above movie plot is what happens when a great country unnecessarily goes over a fiscal cliff, do to nonsensical ego bickering of governmental leaders and society falls into disarray.

The monkeys inherit the Earth.

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GGenua

01/03/13 at 5:48 pm

I took a small hiatus from popsci because I had become disappointed by their left wing tilt on everything. Not that I'm a right winger myself, more of an independent thinker but, that's not my point. IMO, they promote articles which no other science magazine even consider writing about. But, after three months, I decided to take a peek to see if anything science worthy was happening on here. So this is the first story I ran into and read.

Now let me get this straight, popsci: There were these mice who were predisposed to Alzheimer's, that were tested to see if they got Alzheimer's when exposed to unnaturally high doses of radiation,(even for space), and when they got Alzheimer's, you conclude that future astronauts will forget where they come from when making long journeys? Hmmm... so we will develop the technology for long journeys, but will not consider adequate shielding. I see. Or, we are worried that we will start allowing astronauts predisposed to Alzheimer's to take these long journeys? OK.. but.. but... Maybe I'm missing something here. As for the study.. I'm sure it was necessary to determine long term effects of high doses of radiation on mice predisposed to Alzheimer's. Its your conclusions I am confused about, I guess.

You wrote this long article, when on really good stories you may only write two lines, to tell us that if you completely F*k up planning a long mission, you will pay a price? Yeah we get that. Thank you so much! And, thanks once again popsci... for showing me what passes for science on here these days. lol... have a wonderful day.

Today's magic is tomorrow's technology.

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MZeroOne

01/03/13 at 6:10 pm

When talking about shielding spacecraft from high energy cosmic radiation, why is the shielding always a physical barrier like concrete or steel? You state right there in your article that we're protected from this radiation by the earth's magnetic field, why can't spacecraft be shielded by an internally generated magnetic field? Is the energy required to generate a protective magnetic field too great? Can't we harness some of this cosmic radiation to power the magnetic shield/field generator?

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FreeRunX3

01/04/13 at 5:09 am

Finallsomethingto discurage these crazy space obsesed nerds. Stay on earth it{s perfectly fine down here if you don{t think so do something to make it better...

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Porphy

01/04/13 at 11:32 am

I too take issue with this article but for differing reasons. This study, or at least the article regurgitation of it leaves out MANY important considerations:

1.) Subjects were front loaded with doses "designed to mimic high levels of charged particles that would accumulate during a long-term mission." How do you test the long term effects of accumulation on a single (or few) radiation bursts at intense levels? That is fundamentally different than what result you would get by actually exposing the mice to the normal constant (and less-intense) barrage of cosmic radiation.

2.) Recent clinical advances are targeting and tackling amyloidosis, specifically those issues that crop up with plaque build-up from improperly managed APP (Amyloid Precursor Proteins). These are treatments that get to the root of all Amyloidosis-related diseases (Parkison's, Alzheimer's, etc.) This plaque is presented when APP that should be processed by Alpha-secretase is instead processed by Beta-secretase. While Beta-secretase is necessary for the processing of other proteins it is not needed in this instance. Instead it "clips" the protein at the wrong length and shapes it in the wrong area making the remainder into a beta-sheet (basically, at this level of size shape defines function.) What should be a nice smooth coil becomes instead a jagged hair pin that gets expelled and binds with others of its kind until it finally clumps into plaque.

New research in these areas is making headway and less than a year ago a 3 year study on the successful effects of a Anti-beta-amyloid vaccine was announced.

http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=17031

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The article seems to take a whimsical but unrealistic look at the original content.

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