Insulin resistance in the brain precedes and contributes to cognitive decline above and beyond other known causes of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The team identified extensive abnormalities in the activity of two major signaling pathways for insulin and insulin-like growth factor in non-diabetic people with Alzheimer's disease. This is the first study to directly demonstrate that insulin resistance occurs in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. The study is now online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. "If we can prevent brain insulin resistance from occurring, or re-sensitize brain cells to insulin with any of the currently available insulin-sensitizing diabetes medicines, we may be able to slow down, prevent, or perhaps even improve cognitive decline,”  said senior author, Steven E. Arnold, MD, professor of Psychiatry and Neurology. Arnold is also the director of the Penn Memory Center, a National Institute on Aging-designated Alzheimer's Disease Core Center.

Penn Medicine News Release