Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: highlight beta-amyloid plaques
Scientists are developing a new method for diagnosing Alzheimer's diseaseSolway Pharma
Scientists have found that in the brains of people whose relatives suffer from Alzheimer's disease, plaques from the toxic protein beta-amyloid, characteristic of this disease, are often found when there are no other signs of it in the subjects yet.
This discovery will make it possible to diagnose Alzheimer's disease at a time when there is still time to apply medications, and treatment has the greatest chance of success.
Researchers led by Dr. Lisa Mosconi from Langone Medical Center at New York University plan to follow the participants of this study in the future to find out if they will develop dementia. In addition, they intend to repeat their research on a larger scale.
Modern medicines cannot reverse the development of Alzheimer's disease, which affects 26 million people worldwide. Several research groups are struggling with this issue and attempts at early diagnosis.
Dr. Mosconi's group used for diagnosis a technique called positron emission tomography (PET) with contrasting so-called Pittsburgh compound B, which "highlights" beta-amyloid plaques in the brain. (Pittsburgh Compound B is a radioactively labeled analogue of the fluorescent dye thioflavin T, which can be used for PET detection of beta-amyloid plaques in the tissues of the nervous system. Due to this property, the Pittsburgh compound finds application in Alzheimer's disease research.)
The study involved 42 healthy people with an average age of 65 years. A third of them had Alzheimer's disease in their mother, a third had a father, and a third had both parents healthy.
It turned out that people whose parents had Alzheimer's disease were more likely to detect beta-amyloid plaques in the brain, especially if the disease was detected in the mother of the subject.
"The deposition of amyloid in their brain is almost 20% higher," notes Dr. Mosconi. This is confirmed by other studies: Alzheimer's disease in the mother may be a risk factor to a greater extent than the father's disease.
Today it is considered that upon reaching old age, the only risk factor for Alzheimer's disease is the presence of this disease in one or both parents.
The results of the study are published in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).
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