The sooner that Alzheimer’s disease The better the treatment options are and the more similar diseases are identified, the better the treatment options are. In addition, scientists have discovered a blood biomarker that could predict dementia risk many years in advance.
A team from the National Institute on Aging, the University of Texas and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US, and other institutions around the world examined data from 10,981 people collected over a 25-year period.
In particular, the researchers analyzed the proteome of these individuals: the complete set of proteins that are expressed in a body and that control all kinds of biological processes, from cell communication to hormone levels.
The analysis found 32 proteins that were linked to an increased risk at abnormally high or low levels in the blood in people aged 45 to 60 develop dementia later in life.
“The present study used data from multiple cohorts to identify and characterize 32 proteins and 4 protein networks in the plasma of middle-aged adults that were strongly associated with dementia risk over the following decades.” write the researchers in their published work.
This study doesn’t go as far as to examine why these protein imbalances are linked to dementia risk, but it could help scientists more precisely Assessment of the risk of dementia in older adults.
Interestingly, many of the proteins were not directly involved in brain function. That confirms previous research This shows that the onset of dementia and the underlying triggers do not take place exclusively in the brain.
Several of the identified proteins have been linked proteostasisor the healthy regulation of the proteome. This process helps prevent protein clumps that appear in the brains of people who have developed Alzheimer.
Other proteins played a key role in this immune systemThis may show that an immune system reaction or failure increases the likelihood of dementia taking hold in the brain.
There is still a long way to go with this research, but eventually we may get to the point where Blood can be examined for signs of dementia. If these signs are detected earlier, personalized treatments can be initiated.
Later, perhaps one day we will fully understand how diseases like Alzheimer’s disease develop getting started, and that revelation could well come from observing imbalances and abnormalities outside of the brain.
“We see such strong involvement of peripheral biology decades before the typical onset of dementia,” said neuroscientist Keenan Walker of the National Institute on Aging Nature.
The research was published in Scientific translational medicine.
