Age-based cognitive decline, especially Alzheimer’s disease, can have a devastating impact. No one wants to go through it themselves or watch a loved one turn into a stranger. Luckily, new research offers insight into the disease, allowing for innovative strides to be made in diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
diagnosis
Alzheimer’s disease is usually diagnosed through a multimodal process where doctors assess cognitive skills, functional abilities and behavior changes, while also performing tests to rule out other potential causes of memory loss and other symptoms. A positron emission tomography (PET) scan can be done to look for the build-up of amyloid-beta, a brain protein that has been connected to the disease. However, a PET scan has an average cost of between $5,000 and $8,000, and insurance often won’t cover the procedure. Spinal fluid can also be tested for amyloid, but it requires a lumbar puncture.
Research is currently being done to find a less invasive and more cost effective way to look for early signs of Alzheimer’s. There are currently at least five companies offering blood tests for Alzheimer’s that are designed to detect amyloid plaques in the brain. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine led a data analysis to compare six of those tests head-to-head. The study found that some of the tests are accurate enough to replace spinal taps. Most therapies available for Alzheimer’s target amyloid, so doctors need a way to confirm its presence before they can prescribe treatment. Across the six tests, five distinct biomarkers linked to Alzheimer’s were measured using various techniques. One proved exceptionally accurate at identifying signs of the disease: a form of tau known as phosphorylated tau 217 (p-tau217).
treatment
Treating patients with Alzheimer’s disease is currently focused on managing symptoms, but there is a lack of therapies to alter the progression of the disease. Treatments are being developed to target the buildup of amyloid plaques, which may slow or even reverse cognitive decline. Developed by pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Biogen, lecanemab is one of the most prominent drugs developed to target the disease. In studies longer than 18 months, the drug reduced the progression of Alzheimer’s by 27% when compared to a placebo.
The Alzheimer’s Association reports that a study in Philadelphia has found a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drug may be able to help slow cognitive decline. The drug is used to help manage diabetes and lower the risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease by mimicking a natural hormone released by the stomach after eating. In animal models, it was discovered that it may have neuroprotective effects, reducing early forms of amyloid and normalizing the brain’s processing of glucose. The study found that the drug liraglutide may be capable of reducing cognitive decline by as much as 18% after one year for patients with mild Alzheimer’s.
prevention
The Alzheimer’s Association conducted the U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk (U.S. POINTER). Following a study conducted in Finland, it looks at how different lifestyles may impact or prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Results showed that lifestyle interventions targeting a combination of physical activity, improving nutrition, cognitive and social challenge, and health monitoring improved cognition in older adults at risk of cognitive decline. The benefits were even greater for participants in the more structured intervention group, helping prevent the changes in memory and thinking that come with aging over the two-year period of the study.
A study from Harvard found that red meat may increase dementia risk. People who consume two servings of processed red meat a week have a 14% high risk of developing the disease. Findings also indicate that replacing one serving of processed red meat with nuts and legumes can lower the risk by around 20%. Researchers at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health looked at the food-frequency of more than 130,000 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which is tracked for up to 43 years. Each additional serving of processed red meat was linked to around 1.6 years of additional cognitive aging for both global cognition and verbal memory.
Source: Alzheimer’s Association, Washington University School of Medicine, Harvard Health