Alzheimer’s disease is an incurable neurodegenerative condition, which is bothering millions of people worldwide. Its symptoms can be treated, although results are never good. Early detection is helpful, but how can it be achieved? Scientists at the University of Glasgow found that some signs of Alzheimer’s can be detected even before first significant symptoms become obvious.
Alzheimer's disease is characterized by a buildup of amyloid beta plaques, but this devastating condition could be diagnosed much earlier. Image credit: Pics56 via Wikimedia(CC BY-SA 4.0)
Alzheimer’s may take anyone, but there are some risk factors that increase the likelihood of the development of this condition. Some of them are genetic and now scientists found that healthy people exhibiting these genetic factors may show differences in brain structure and in cognitive test scores relating to reasoning and attention. In other words, signs of Alzheimer’s disease may be detectable even before the first symptoms of the disease become obvious.
These differences are small, but the link between cognitive performance and genetic risk factors shows that Alzheimer’s may be detectable very early. Scientists figured it out by studying a large number of mutations for 32,790 generally-healthy adults without dementia. And so they found that lifetime genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease can be associated with average differences in brain structure and cognitive performance.
It is important to note that these extremely early signs do not mean that the person already has early dementia. In fact, scientists are not yet sure what these findings mean. Rachana Tank, a lead author on the study, said: “Our findings are novel because they show the effects of genetic risk may, to a certain extent, be apparent long before a clinical dementia diagnosis. Although we cannot say for certain that these differences are early signs of dementia per se, it is important that we do further research in this area.”
Scientists will continue their work in this area, hoping to develop new, more accurate and reliable methods to detect Alzheimer’s disease risk early. This information is crucial, because some environmental factors contribute to a quick development of the disease. Also, there are some emerging treatment options, which are not going to cure the disease, but could ease the symptoms. It is always good to know your risk of some specific diseases.
Currently Alzheimer’s disease risk is estimated by looking at the family history of dementia. There are some environmental and genetic risk factors too, but they are usually not included in the risk assessment. Measuring cognitive abilities and the brain structure could be novel and more individualized ways to see the true risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Source: University of Glasgow