Gene tests and brain imaging reveal early dementia

Dementia involves a serious deterioration of mental function caused by some kind of dementia disease of the brain, of which Alzheimer’s is the most common. Although there is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s, it is possible to inhibit its development if the treatment is given early enough. However, with today’s diagnostics, it is very difficult to identify people with early Alzheimer’s.

A new doctoral thesis by Johanna Lind, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, now shows that genetic mapping and brain imagery can be used to identify people who will develop dementia even before any clinical symptoms appear.

“This is a crucial step towards the better diagnosis of Alzheimer’s,” she says. “If the method is developed it can help us find the people who’d benefit most from treatment in good time.”

The method is based on the well-established fact that the APOE protein affects the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. APOE is a lipid-transporting protein important in, amongst other things, the repair of cerebral neurons. Roughly one person in five carries a genetically determined variant of APOE that is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s.

In her study, Ms Lind was able to show that some of the people in this risk group had reduced parietal lobe activity, detectable using an MR camera, and that these same people were the ones who went on to suffer memory deterioration two to three years later.

“It’s surprisingly difficult to diagnose Alzheimer’s with any certainty, but things are made easier if you know who runs the greatest risk,” she says. “If genetic mapping, MRI and cognitive tests all suggest approaching Alzheimer’s, it might be an idea to start a course of treatment.”

Thesis: Memory, genes, and brain imaging – relating the APOE gene to brain function and structure

For further information, please contact:

PhD Johanna Lind
Department of Clinical Neuroscience
Tel: +46 (0)8-51776108 or +46(0)70-5396979 (mobile)
Email: johanna.lind@ki.se
Press Officer Katarina Sternudd
Tel: +46 (0)8-524 838 95 or +46 (0)70-224 38 95 (mobile)
Email: katarina.sternudd@ki.se

Media Contact

Katarina Sternudd alfa

All latest news from the category: Health and Medicine

This subject area encompasses research and studies in the field of human medicine.

Among the wide-ranging list of topics covered here are anesthesiology, anatomy, surgery, human genetics, hygiene and environmental medicine, internal medicine, neurology, pharmacology, physiology, urology and dental medicine.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors