Office of Primary Care and Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program

Mark Nelson, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor and chair of pharmacology, professor of surgery and molecular physiology & biophysics

(DECEMBER 9, 2024) A new study led by Mark Nelson, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor and chair of pharmacology, professor of surgery and molecular physiology & biophysics, reveals how electrical and calcium signaling work as one to regulate blood flow in the brain, according to Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN).

Cerebral blood delivery depends on mechanisms such as electrical signaling, which propagates through capillary networks to upstream arterioles to deliver blood, and calcium signaling, which fine-tunes local blood flow. For years, these mechanisms were thought to operate independently.

The findings, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in an article titled “Electrocalcium coupling in brain capillaries: Rapidly traveling electrical signals ignite local calcium signals,” offers a new framework for understanding and potentially treating conditions like stroke, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease, where disruptions in blood flow are an early and defining feature.

“This use-dependent increase in local blood flow (functional hyperemia), mediated by mechanisms collectively termed neurovascular coupling (NVC), is essential for normal brain function and represents the physiological basis for functional magnetic resonance imaging,” said Nelson. “Furthermore, deficits in cerebral blood flow (CBF) including functional hyperemia are an early feature of small vessel diseases (SVDs) of the brain and Alzheimer’s long before overt clinical symptoms.”

Nelson noted, “Recently, the UVM team also demonstrated that deficits in cerebral blood flow in small vessel disease of the brain and Alzheimer’s could be corrected by an essential co-factor of electrical signaling. The current work indicates that calcium signaling could also be restored. The ‘Holy Grail,’ so to speak, is whether early restoration of cerebral blood flow in brain blood vessel disease slows cognitive decline.”

This work was also covered by Time News, Vermont Public, Medical Xpress, Pulse 2.0, and Head Topics