There’s nothing scarier than slowly losing your memory.
Every four seconds, someone in the world gets the tumultuous and heartbreaking diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. While we assume the start of this unforgiving disease is marked by erased memory, scientists have now found that the clues of early diagnosis lie in our eyes and ears.
How does that happens and how can we use that ability to spot the red flags at an earlier stage?
The Initial Red Flags Aren’t Loss Of Memory
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that before the memory starts to erode, something snaps in the brain which deletes the link between the sense of smell and its identifying marker. Meaning that at the start of the disease, certain parts of the brain come under attack first - so when people can’t identify what a particular smell represents, it’s clearly a marker of Alzheimer’s.
The eyes are directly connected to the brain - a peek at the microscopic level at the back of the eyes can help scientists look for signs of erosion before the actual symptoms set it. Clinical trials for the same are expected to begin soon.
These findings were revealed at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto this week and they are critical for two reasons:
1) If the disease is caught at stage 0, meaning before you actually have the symptoms, life span and quality can be greatly improved.
2) The current drug regimen is such that once the brain starts degrading, nothing can be done to stop or reverse the process.
Also Read: Why India Has a Low Alzheimer’s Rate
First Drug After 30 Years Of Research That Appears To Slow Down Alzheimer’s
While scientists at the University of Pittsburgh are working on the diagnosing the disease as soon as plaque starts building in, there’s an exciting breakthrough to celebrate. For the first time a drug has successfully slowed down the progression of the disease in clinical trials done on 1000 patients.
Solanezumab, the promising drug by pharma giant, Eli Lilly, works by attacking the protein formation in the brain.
Back in 2012, this drug disappointed patients, researchers and investors when it failed at clinical trials. But scientists kept studying it, trying to see if it made a difference to patients who were in very early stages of the disease.
When they looked at the combined memory and thinking test scores of all the volunteers three years later, those who got the drug early were still in the mild stages of Alzheimer’s while those on placebo had slipped further in the twilight zone.
The results are exciting because they strongly indicate the drug is acting on the disease itself, rather than only relieving symptoms. And it was tried on people, not rats.
Solanezumab is going into another trial very soon and if the same results are replicated, it will be a real breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research.
The drug showed no side effects. The only complaint of the patients on trial – it is an injectable.
At the moment there is no medication that can slow down dementia. If such a drug hit the shelves it could transform how the disease is managed
Related Read: Have Scientists Misunderstood Alzheimer’s For the Last 30 Years?
There’s nothing scarier than slowly losing your memory.
Every four seconds, someone in the world gets the tumultuous and heartbreaking diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. While we assume the start of this unforgiving disease is marked by erased memory, scientists have now found that the clues of early diagnosis lie in our eyes and ears.
How does that happens and how can we use that ability to spot the red flags at an earlier stage?
The Initial Red Flags Aren’t Loss Of Memory
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that before the memory starts to erode, something snaps in the brain which deletes the link between the sense of smell and its identifying marker. Meaning that at the start of the disease, certain parts of the brain come under attack first - so when people can’t identify what a particular smell represents, it’s clearly a marker of Alzheimer’s.
The eyes are directly connected to the brain - a peek at the microscopic level at the back of the eyes can help scientists look for signs of erosion before the actual symptoms set it. Clinical trials for the same are expected to begin soon.
These findings were revealed at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto this week and they are critical for two reasons:
1) If the disease is caught at stage 0, meaning before you actually have the symptoms, life span and quality can be greatly improved.
2) The current drug regimen is such that once the brain starts degrading, nothing can be done to stop or reverse the process.
Also Read: Why India Has a Low Alzheimer’s Rate
First Drug After 30 Years Of Research That Appears To Slow Down Alzheimer’s
While scientists at the University of Pittsburgh are working on the diagnosing the disease as soon as plaque starts building in, there’s an exciting breakthrough to celebrate. For the first time a drug has successfully slowed down the progression of the disease in clinical trials done on 1000 patients.
Solanezumab, the promising drug by pharma giant, Eli Lilly, works by attacking the protein formation in the brain.
Back in 2012, this drug disappointed patients, researchers and investors when it failed at clinical trials. But scientists kept studying it, trying to see if it made a difference to patients who were in very early stages of the disease.
When they looked at the combined memory and thinking test scores of all the volunteers three years later, those who got the drug early were still in the mild stages of Alzheimer’s while those on placebo had slipped further in the twilight zone.
The results are exciting because they strongly indicate the drug is acting on the disease itself, rather than only relieving symptoms. And it was tried on people, not rats.
Solanezumab is going into another trial very soon and if the same results are replicated, it will be a real breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research.
The drug showed no side effects. The only complaint of the patients on trial – it is an injectable.
At the moment there is no medication that can slow down dementia. If such a drug hit the shelves it could transform how the disease is managed
Related Read: Have Scientists Misunderstood Alzheimer’s For the Last 30 Years?
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