The first changes in the brain of a person with Alzheimer's disease can be observed as much as ten years in advance - ten years beforethe person in question has become so ill that he or she can bediagnosed with the disease. This is what a new study from LundUniversity in Sweden has found. Physician Oskar Hansson and his research group are studyingbiomarkers - substances present in spinal fluid and linked toAlzheimer's disease. The group has studied close to 140 people withmild memory impairment, showing that a certain combination ofmarkers (low levels of the substance beta-amyloid and high levelsof the substance tau) indicate a high risk of developingAlzheimer's disease in the future. As many as 91 per cent of the patients with mild memory impairmentwho had these risk markers went on to develop Alzheimer's within aten-year period. In contrast, those who had memory impairment butnormal values for the markers did not run a higher risk of gettingAlzheimer's than healthy individuals. Oskar Hansson previouslycarried out a study showing that pathological changes can be seenin the brain of an Alzheimer's patient five years before thediagnosis. The new study has thus doubled this time span to tenyears. "This is a very important finding with regard to the development ofnew therapies against the disease. All prospective therapies haveso far shown to be ineffective in stopping the disease, and manypeople are concerned that the pharmaceutical companies will give uptheir efforts in this field. But these failures may depend on thefact that the new therapies were initiated too late. When a patientreceives a diagnosis today, the damage has already gone too far,"says Oskar Hansson. With the help of the biomarkers studied by the group,pharmaceutical companies will now be able to identify the peoplewith mild symptoms who run the highest risk of developingAlzheimer's within a ten-year period. These individuals can then beoffered the opportunity of taking part in trials for new medicines,while those who run a low risk of developing the disease do notneed to be involved. A new trial of this kind is already underway,on the basis of the earlier study by the Hansson group. The 90 per cent accuracy of the risk markers means that they arenot sufficient as the only method for early diagnosis ofAlzheimer's. But if they can be combined with a clinical assessmentand, for example, imaging of the blood flow in the brain, it shouldbe possible to increase the level of accuracy, according to OskarHansson. However, this will only be relevant once drugs that areeffective in slowing down the disease have been developed. Onlythen will it really be meaningful to identify patients earlier thanis currently possible. By observing how the levels of the biomarkers develop over the tenyears before the patient's diagnosis, the research group has alsobeen able to map the progression of the disease in the brain. Theresults indicate that it starts with a modified turnover ofbeta-amyloid. Only later is this followed by changes in the tauprotein and damage to nerve cells. This can be importantinformation for those developing new therapies for Alzheimer's. Additional References Citations. I am an expert from chinadrillingequipment.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Waterwell Drilling Rig Manufacturer , Diaphragm Wall Equipment, drilling rigs suppliers,and more.
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