Could the secret to fighting Alzheimer’s be tucked away in your brain’s hidden sugar stores? A groundbreaking new study from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging has uncovered an unexpected sugar “switch” that may protect the brain from dementia — and it’s shaking up what we thought we knew about brain health.
Published in Nature Metabolism, the research shows that neurons quietly stash away glycogen, a stored form of glucose. This was long dismissed as insignificant, but the Buck team discovered that when too much builds up, it tangles with tau, the infamous protein that clumps into damaging knots in Alzheimer’s patients.
Lead researcher Dr. Sudipta Bar and senior scientist Dr. Pankaj Kapahi discovered a clever workaround: boosting an enzyme called glycogen phosphorylase (GlyP) to break down excess glycogen. Instead of fueling the cell with energy, this broken-down sugar flows into the pentose phosphate pathway, ramping up potent molecules like NADPH and glutathione that protect the brain from oxidative stress.
By flipping this sugar switch in flies and human neurons, researchers reduced tau-related damage and even extended lifespan in dementia-model fruit flies. Even more fascinating? Classic dietary restriction — known to lengthen life — naturally activates this same enzyme. This might even help explain why GLP-1 weight loss drugs are showing promise in combating dementia: they may be quietly activating this sugar-clearing pathway as well.
As our society faces a surge in age-related brain diseases, discoveries like this reveal how understanding — and rebalancing — our brain’s sugar code could unlock new ways to keep minds sharp for decades to come. Sometimes, the tiniest molecules hold the biggest promise for the future.