“This is what you are destined to do, and what you will learn to do very soon,” said the travel guide named Radial Glia as she noticed me gaping around the place in disbelief. “But I have no idea how to set up my arms around like that, and I don’t know anyone around here. How can I talk to strangers like that,” I replied very worried.
“Well, the neurons you see, got here not too long ago. They were strangers like you, but they figured out what they were supposed to do. Very soon, you will too,’ she answered back smiling. Dumbfounded by what Radial Glia told me, I quietly followed her into a strange new place that was to become my home.
Soon we reached a site designated specifically for new neurons like us. While some of my siblings stayed along with me, others had to go off to faraway places, for they, as the helper proteins said, were genetically coded to be somewhere else. It was not easy parting with them knowing that it was the last time we would see each other. However, we knew that we could always talk across synaptic clefts by passing messages along our arms. Therefore, it didn’t feel so bad. Soon, molecules named Netrins came about and showed us the correct path to follow by laying out a chemical trail. After this, the friendly cell-adhesion molecules oriented us around our designated area. They also introduced me to my fellow neighbor neurons and taught me ways to form synapses. Moments after that, I found myself busy transmitting and receiving information by releasing my own neurotransmitter chemicals to my new friends. Just a moment ago, it had felt like I was a complete stranger in this place and after a few hours of orientation, it felt like I was home.
My life progressed on a smooth pace. My job was to remember experiences that our human went through and make new memories. Every day I would have new things to learn and recollect. Playing around with new ideas, memories, and dreams took up most of my time. I loved every aspect of it. Everything seemed perfect around me. My vesicles never ran out of neurotransmitters, my glia cells always stood by my side and my tau proteins were never less than perfect in orienting my microtubules. I had all my friends to play around and I always got everything I needed. Until then, it felt like nothing could ever go wrong in my life.
Glia cells always told me that I was designed to live for 127 years. When I turned 65, I had half my life to live and felt like just getting started on my adulthood. However, my life took a completely different turn as the human we lived in, started showing signs of early dementia. One day, I was woken up by the microglia cells in the brain. They told me that there was an immune response initiated around my neighborhood. They had found unwanted deposit of sticky substances, called the beta amyloid plaques, building up in the intracellular spaces and tampering on the kinase enzymes inside innocent memory neurons. Those plaques had distorted the tau tangles in the neurons. This caused those neurons to be severely injured. The microglia cells and the other helper proteins warned me to remain alert. As days went by, the condition started getting serious. Every morning there would be neurons all around the cortex that needed external help to stay alive. My microtubule system too did not feel like they used to. I noticed that the once perfectly functioning tau proteins inside me had started getting into tangles. As my neighboring neurons were not in a position to send out chemical messages, I lost contact with most of my friends. Having to see the best of my friends degenerate was extremely painful. The once fun-filled area of the cerebral cortex, with lightning bolts of neurotransmitters zooming around, lost its luster. Everything around me seemed gloomy.
It did not take too long for me to realize that my condition had been rapidly degenerating. The immune response cells were not much of help now. The buildup of beta amyloid plaques had gone up so high that it was not possible to completely clean them out. The distorted tau tangles inside me affected the functioning of my organelles and my discomfort started increasing. The uneasiness only got worse with time. All the suffering sometimes made me consider apoptosis as an option. However, I tried not to lose hope. As a young neuron, I never gave up learning new things even if they initially seemed daunting. Therefore even if I was diseased, I hoped for some form of external medical aid to make things better. I wanted to see a treatment to this condition and wanted other neurons to have a life I was fortunate enough to have till I got this disease. However, despite all the effort I put in, the distorted tau tangles inside my body eventually clogged up my entire transport system. After that, I could no longer carry out the simplest of my daily chores. Eventually, I succumbed to the disease as everything around me faded into darkness.
I do not understand what caused beta plaque deposits to build up in the brain. Unlike other body cells, neurons are very disciplined about what they ingest. Therefore, neurons could not have caused this condition. This disease erased trillions of devoted, diligent neurons for no justifiable reason. With years of continuous impeccable work, we neurons have helped make an intelligent human being. It is high time that humans took a major leap forward and put a winning end to this disease. My life was a lost battle but I hope there is a winning end to the war on Alzheimer’s disease.
Writer is a student at Mt Holyoke College, USA
upadh20r@ntholyoke.edu
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