(ORDO NEWS) — Neurologists at the University of Glasgow have found that the brains of three species of stranded dolphins contain the same Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers as humans.
No evidence of this disease has been previously reported in any animal other than humans.
In dolphins, however, Alzheimer’s disease has not been seen for the first time – for example, in 2017, an international team of specialists discovered amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in dead dolphins washed up on the coast of Spain.
The findings support the “sick leader” theory, in which a group of healthy dolphins find themselves stranded in dangerous shallow waters by following a group leader with Alzheimer’s disease.
The researchers studied the brains of 20 individuals of five different species of dolphins that washed up on the coast of Scotland.
Scientists found in the brains of four animals from different types of accumulation of beta-amyloid plaques, deposits of tau protein and gliosis (a change in the number of cells in response to damage to the central nervous system).
All of these brain changes suggest that dolphins and probably other toothed whales (killer whales, sperm whales, narwhals, and others) may suffer from dementia.
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