Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How Alzheimer's disease spreads in the brain explained
By Vazquez-Palomo A et al.·2026·Department of Construction and Manufacturing Engineering, Spain·View original on Europe PMC →
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Original publication title: A computational framework to predict the spreading of Alzheimer's disease.
Plain-English summary
This research focuses on Alzheimer's disease, which involves the spread of harmful proteins in the brain and changes to brain structure over time. The scientists created a detailed computer model to better understand how these proteins move and how they affect brain tissue. By using advanced imaging techniques, they were able to simulate how the disease progresses in individual brains, capturing important patterns seen in patients. Their model aligns well with actual measurements taken from brain scans over time. Overall, this new framework could help researchers study Alzheimer's disease more effectively and is available for others to use.
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease is characterised by the spreading of misfolded proteins and progressive structural changes in the brain. Despite significant clinical research, understanding how microscopic protein dynamics translate into macroscopic tissue degeneration remains a major challenge. In this work, we present a three-dimensional, finite element-based computational framework to model disease progression by combining multi-protein transport and brain tissue deformation within anatomically realistic geometries. The propagation of toxic tau and amyloid-[Formula: see text] proteins is described using reaction-diffusion equations of the Fisher-Kolmogorov type, incorporating prion-like growth mechanisms and anisotropic transport along white matter fibre tracts. Brain atrophy is represented through a hyperelastic constitutive model driven by protein-dependent volume loss. Subject-specific simulations are achieved through an automated preprocessing pipeline that generates finite element meshes and reconstructs axonal orientation fields from medical imaging data. The model reproduces key morphological patterns observed in Alzheimer's disease and shows good quantitative agreement with longitudinal imaging measurements. Overall, the proposed framework offers an extensible computational platform for studying Alzheimer's disease progression across subject-specific brain geometries. The models developed, including the image processing framework (BrainImage2Mesh) and the coupled bio-chemo-mechanical COMSOL finite element implementation, are made freely available to download at https://mechmat.web.ox.ac.uk/codes.<h4>Supplementary information</h4>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00366-026-02313-5.
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Search related cases →Original publication on Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/41940407