A very simple test

Pain sensitivity tests will help in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science

It is not easy to diagnose Alzheimer's disease until it is too late and changes in behavior and cognitive abilities begin to manifest themselves. Genetic research can help this: it is known that the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene plays a huge role in the development of the disease. Most common variants of APOE allow cells to get rid of cholesterol in time, but the APOE4 variant does not work as effectively and is reliably associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

But mass sequencing in search of APOE4 is not an easy task and is not cheap yet. Therefore, a team of American physicians led by Raymond Romano from the University of Tennessee has proposed an alternative way to identify carriers of APOE4 using a simple test. They write about this in an article published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. The work is also described in a press release distributed by IOS Press.

The scientists conducted experiments with 49 cognitively healthy adult volunteers, 12 of whom had previously been found to have the APOE4 variant. The subjects were subjected to controlled exposure to heat, increasing the temperature until the pain threshold was reached. It was found that APOE4 carriers showed reduced sensitivity, but when pain was achieved, they experienced it more strongly than the rest of the participants in the experiments.

The authors of the work believe that such tests in clinics can become a simple and fast tool for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, long before its symptoms manifest themselves externally. However, before they enter medical practice, new research involving more people will be required. It would be nice to understand where the connection between APOE4 and pain comes from.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru