New biomarker shows Alzheimer's disease long before symptoms

Analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in the cerebrospinal fluid has found that both symptomatic Alzheimer’s patients and asymptomatic patients at risk of Alzheimer’s showed a significant decrease in levels of circulating cell-free mtDNA in the CSF. Patients with frontotemporal dementia did not display this.

Moreover, this potential biomarker occurred at least a decade before signs of dementia manifested, preceding the appearance of amyloid-beta and tau — suggesting not simply that it might be used as a very early sign of developing Alzheimer’s, but that the pathological process of Alzheimer's disease starts earlier than previously thought.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/cg-nbc081213.php

[3598] Podlesniy, P., Figueiro-Silva J., Llado A., Antonell A., Sanchez-Valle R., Alcolea D., et al.
(2013).  Low cerebrospinal fluid concentration of mitochondrial DNA in preclinical Alzheimer disease.
Annals of Neurology. 74(5), 655 - 668.

Related News

A training program designed to help older adults with

Comparison of young adults (mean age 24.5) and older adults (mean age 69.1) in a visual memory test involving multitasking has pinpointed the greater problems older adults have with multitasking.

A study involving 125 younger (average age 19) and older (average age 69) adults has revealed that while younger adults showed better explicit learning, older adults were better at implicit learning. Implicit memory is our unconscious memory, which influences behavior without our awareness.

A two-year study involving 53 older adults (60+) has found that those with a mother who had Alzheimer's disease had significantly more brain atrophy than those with a father or no parent with Alzheimer's disease.

Data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging, begun in 1958, has revealed that seniors with hearing loss are significantly more likely to develop dementia than those who retain their hearing.

Shrinking of the

A new molecular compound derived from curcumin (found in turmeric) holds promise for treating brain damage caused by stroke. Turmeric has a long history of use in Ayurvedic and Chinese traditional medicine.

The new label of ‘metabolic syndrome’ applies to those having three or more of the following risk factors: high blood pressure, excess belly fat, higher than normal triglycerides, high blood sugar and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the "good" cholesterol).

Lesions of the brain microvessels include white-matter hyperintensities and the much less common silent infarcts leading to loss of white-matter tissue.

Another study has come out proclaiming the cognitive benefits of walking for older adults.

Pages

Subscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest health newsSubscribe to Latest news