Alzheimer's Disease (also known as dementia) is considered to be incurable. Once the damage to the brain is sufficiently advanced, there is no going back. But what if Alzheimer's Disease could be prevented?
Since the inception of the Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation in 1993, the focus has always been about prevention. In today's world, this concept is more relevant than ever before, as we are witnessing the medical community embrace the need for this approach. In fact, Alzheimer's disease is associated with more deaths in the United States than any other disease, and will soon be for the entire world as well.
In the video below, Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., founding president and medical director of the Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation, recently sat down to discuss some exciting developments in the Alzheimer's research field and talks about the vindication of the science behind the ARPF's work in the prevention field and the promise it holds.
In related news:
Spanish researchers, led by Pedro Carmona from the Instituto de Estructura de la Materia in Madrid, have uncovered a new promising way to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease more accurately. Their technique, which is non-invasive, fast and low-cost, measures how much infrared radiation is either emitted or absorbed by white blood cells. Because of its high sensitivity, this method is able to distinguish between the different clinical stages of disease development thereby allowing reliable diagnosis of both mild and moderate stages of Alzheimer’s. The work is published online in Springer’s journal Analytical & Bioanalytical Chemistry.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of adult onset dementia and is characterized by the degeneration of the nervous system. In particular, as the disease progresses, the amount of amyloid-ß peptide in the body rises. At present, the most reliable and sensitive diagnostic techniques are invasive, e.g. require analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (the liquid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord). However, white blood cells (or mononuclear leukocytes) are also thought to carry amyloid-ß peptide in Alzheimer patients.
The researchers used two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy to measure and compare the infrared radiation emitted or absorbed by white blood cells of healthy controls, versus those of patients with mild, moderate and severe Alzheimer’s disease. A total of 50 patients with Alzheimer’s and 20 healthy controls took part in the study and gave blood samples.
The authors found significant differences in the range of infrared wavelengths displayed between subjects, which were attributable to the different stages of formation of amyloid-ß structures in the blood cells. The results showed that, with this method, healthy controls could be distinguished from mild and moderate sufferers of Alzheimer’s disease. The method is being explored as a tool for early diagnosis.
The authors conclude: “The method we used can potentially offer a more simple detection of alternative biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. Mononuclear leukocytes seem to offer a stable medium to determine ß-sheet structure levels as a function of disease development. Our measurements seem to be more sensitive for earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease, namely mild and moderate.”