Donation of Brain Tissue for Dementia Research
Aidan McAllister, a 28-year-old man from Buckhaven in Fife diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, has donated part of his healthy brain tissue to researchers aiming to find a cure for dementia. This decision was influenced by his experience watching his grandfather suffer from the disease.
Last year, Aidan was informed that a brain tumour would significantly shorten his life expectancy. When he was scheduled for surgery to remove the tumour, he consented to doctors taking a portion of his healthy brain matter for dementia research purposes.
The donated tissue is used in a research programme that maintains living human brain tissue in laboratory conditions for study. This initiative is led by neurosurgeon Paul Brennan from NHS Lothian's department of clinical neurosciences and Race Against Dementia Fellow Dr Claire Durrant from the University of Edinburgh.
Aidan described his decision to donate as straightforward.
"I was getting the craniotomy anyway so they could get the tumour, and to get to the tumour they have to drill a hole,"he explained.
"They also have to go through healthy brain tissue to get there so they will just take it while they are accessing the tumour. I think they just took about half the size of my pinky and it hasn't impacted me at all."
Following the surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible, Aidan has undergone chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
His contribution to research holds personal significance, as his grandfather, Thomas, passed away from dementia in 2020.
"My grandad, Thomas, was a big strong man,"Aidan shared.
"He was a miner and to watch him disappear because of the disease was quite hard. We were really close – he lived just across the road and we saw each other every day. His dementia became so severe that he didn't know who he was or who we were. It's a really brutal disease."
Research Using Healthy Brain Tissue
The innovative research utilizing Aidan's donated brain tissue has enabled scientists to demonstrate how a toxic form of a protein associated with Alzheimer's disease can bind to and damage synapses, the connections between brain cells.
The goal of this research is to identify medications that can prevent synapse loss, which is critical for communication between brain cells and maintaining healthy brain function.
Neurosurgeon Paul Brennan elaborated on the process:
"During neurosurgery, there is always a small amount of healthy brain tissue that must be removed in order to reach, for example, a tumour and typically that tissue would be thrown away. Our partnership with Claire and her team means we can package up that healthy, living tissue and send it to the lab for testing. Even the tiniest piece contains thousands of cells, and we can learn a great deal from it. Research of this type has been underway for some time, but this collaboration allows us to study living human brain tissue in a way that hasn't routinely been possible before."
