Alzheimers disease research provides hope for the future
As baby boomers age, the number of patients with Alzheimers disease could as much as triple, placing an incredible strain on the healthcare and social welfare systems. As a result, researchers are utilizing advances in science and technology to understand how to prevent the disease from occurring, how to diagnose the disease before cognitive and behavioral symptoms appear, and how to treat the disease to slow or even stop its progression. Hopefully, Alzheimers research will allow the disease to one day become a manageable, or even preventable, condition.
Dementia can be caused by a number of disease processes unrelated to Alzheimers disease; therefore, before the development of more advanced diagnostic tools in the late twentieth century, the only accurate way to diagnose Alzheimers was post-mortem with an autopsy. Now memory and cognition tests taken over a period of time, along with medical tests to rule out other illnesses, can allow a high level of accuracy in the diagnosis of Alzheimers disease-as high as 90%.
Other Alzheimers research suggests that advanced technology such as MRIs and PET scans could allow physicians to look into the brains of their patients and detect structural changes that indicate the presence of the disease before symptoms even begin. In fact, government scientists are so confident about the diagnostic abilities of a PET scan that Medicare will now cover the expensive procedure in cases when it is difficult to make a diagnosis. The earlier doctors are able to diagnose the disease, the better they are able to treat it using current medications.
In addition to finding ways to diagnose the disease earlier and with greater accuracy, Alzheimers research is also attempting to discover ways to stop the disease itself with gene therapies and new medications. Researchers have recently studied several genes that may stop the production of plaque in the brain or devour the plaque, and other research has been done on a type of cell in the brain, which could be defective in Alzheimers patients, that might be involved in preventing a build-up of plaque. Another rare antibiotic called clioquinol could be useful in preventing plaque. Research on cardiovascular disease has led to studies of "statin" drugs, which lower cholesterol, as well as Vitamin B6, B12, and Folic Acid, which lower levels of homocysteine in the blood; both cholesterol and homocysteine levels could play a role in Alzheimers disease.
Finally, Alzheimers research is also focusing on environmental and genetic factors that could influence the development of Alzheimers disease. For example, one recent study found a possible link between the development of Alzheimers disease and a person's occupational history. Adults with mentally demanding occupations were less likely to develop the disease than adults with less mentally demanding occupations.
Additionally, widespread genetic research could allow scientists to better understand the role different genes play in the development of Alzheimers disease, potentially leading to gene therapies. By examining the disease from a multi-dimensional perspective, researchers are more likely to find the one factor that could stop Alzheimers disease from being the menace that it currently is.
New Alzheimer's genes foundCardiff University researchers have found evidence for new genes involved in the development of Alzheimer's disease.
The study, to be published in the next issue of the journal Human Molecular Genetics, tested more than 17,000 gene variants in 4,000 volunteers.
Several genes were found to show evidence of contributing to Alzheimer's disease, the most interesting gene being 'GALP' which could affect the development of tangles within brain cells, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.
Professor Julie Williams, School of Medicine, who leads this project with Professor Micheal Owen said: "Whilst these genes are likely to make modest contributions to disease more work needs to be done to test their strength in other samples of volunteers."
Professor Owen, School of Medicine said: "Identifying susceptibility genes for Alzheimer's disease provides a knowledge base for the development of potential new treatments and diagnostic tests. This study is just the first in series we are undertaking using new technology to look comprehensively at every gene in the human genome in Alzheimer's Disease and we hope that there are other exciting findings to come."
There is no known cure or preventative treatment for Alzheimer's disease, which affects one in 20 people over the age of 65 and one in five over the age of 80 in the UK and more than 12 million people worldwide. The disease causes a distressing, irreversible and progressive loss of brain function and memory.
The School of Medicine's Department of Psychological Medicine has established a bank of more than 3,000 volunteers in South Wales, and elsewhere in the UK, to identify possible genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's Disease.
"This is one of the largest studies of its kind and involves many Welsh families " said Professor Julie Williams. "It is by virtue of the support given to us by Alzheimer's sufferers and their carers that we are able to understand factors involved in the disease process. Many genes will be linked with Alzheimer's disease and our current programme of research is designed to identify them."
