香港六合彩中特网

A team of researchers from the Institute, part-funded by the Alzheimer鈥檚 Research Trust, has discovered that combining spinal fluid testing with MRI scans could provide an early indication of a person鈥檚 risk of developing Alzheimer鈥檚.

The approach could allow scientists to test treatments or preventions far earlier in the disease, when experts believe they could be more effective.

The findings of the study are published online this week in Annals of Neurology.

The researchers studied 105 cognitively normal individuals from the Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). They split this group into those with high and low levels of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid, a protein which is typically reduced in the CSF of patients with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.

MRI scan measurements over 12 months were used to calculate the brain shrinkage rate. The team also checked other characteristics such as the presence of known Alzheimer鈥檚 risk gene APOE4.

The results revealed that the brains of those normal individuals with low CSF levels of amyloid (38% of the group), shrank twice as quickly as the other group. They were also five times more likely to possess the APOE4 risk gene and had higher levels of another culprit Alzheimer鈥檚 protein, tau.

Study lead author Dr Jonathan Schott from the Dementia Research Centre (香港六合彩中特网 Institute of Neurology) said: 鈥淚n this study of healthy people in their 70s and 80s we found that about one in three had a spinal fluid profile consistent with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. Using MRI scanning, we showed that these individuals also had increased brain shrinkage over the following year.

鈥淭he significance of these findings will only be clear with longer clinical follow-up, but may suggest that these individuals are at increased risk of developing dementia. If so these results add to a growing body of work suggesting that Alzheimer鈥檚 disease starts many years before the onset of symptoms.鈥�

Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer鈥檚 Research Trust, the leading UK dementia research charity, said: 鈥淲e are hamstrung by our inability to accurately detect Alzheimer鈥檚, but these findings could prove to be pivotal. Spotting Alzheimer鈥檚 early is essential to the global research effort to beat the disease. We know that treatments for many diseases can be more successful if given early and this is likely to be true for Alzheimer鈥檚. It will be crucial to keep following the study group to see how many develop Alzheimer鈥檚, and to expand the research to test the approach further.

鈥淔indings like these underline the importance of research, but detecting Alzheimer鈥檚 is only the first step. If we are to defeat the disease, we must invest in research into preventions and treatments now before our dementia crisis spirals out of control.鈥�

reference >> Increased brain atrophy rates in cognitively normal adults with low CSF A尾1-42. Jonathan M Schott MD MRCP, Jonathan W Bartlett PhD, Nick C Fox MD FRCP, Josephine Barnes PhD



read more >> | | | 香港六合彩中特网 News |聽 |