Check if plaque of beta-amyloid proteins and tangles of tau proteins are present in cerebrospinal fluid after lumbar puncture.

Maybe there will be a blood test.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2013-rst/7488.html

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-blood-alzheimer-procedure-early-stages.html

Other:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/uops-pop071513.php

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/ef-anw122011.php

Regards,

Joachim

thank you Joachim for your links; they really show the diversity of research in this area. Blood tests are a very promising area I think, as they are easy to apply in a clinical setting and have less stigma and practical difficulties than lumbar puncture and imaging. Unless a test is cheap and easy, then it will not be standard practice in heathcare settings.

I think it is important to discuss at what age should we start considering early alzheimers? It is fairly established now that alzheimer-like changes within the brain precede any clinical cognitive symptoms, perhaps by decades. Control and monitoring of vascular and inflammatory factors in mid-life may help limit the risk for all dementias including Alzheimers. As the cognitive deteriortation in Alzheimers cannot be reversed, we must take action before the condition sets in. More longitudinal studies starting at middle age and/or MCI populations are needed

I am sending to your attention updated information on the matter.

Telomere Length Shortening and Alzheimer Disease—A Mendelian Randomization StudyYiqiang Zhan, MD1; Ci Song, PhD1; Robert Karlsson, PhD1; Annika Tillander, PhD1; Chandra A. Reynolds, PhD2; Nancy L. Pedersen, PhD1; Sara Hägg, PhD1

[+-] Author Affiliations 1Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

2Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside

JAMA Neurol. 2015;72(10):1202-1203. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2015.1513.

Look into Yahoo -Peanut butter could be a good tool to detect Alzheimer

Another useful tests for early detection

Two studies explore potential new blood tests for Alzheimer's disease

Published on November 10, 2015 at 1:25 AM · No Comments

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There is increasing evidence that the brain changes of Alzheimer's disease begin decades before memory and thinking problems occur, prompting the need for better methods of early detection for this progressive, fatal brain disease. Consequently, there is a growing school of thought that the most effective future Alzheimer's drug therapies will be administered to those who are at high risk of the disease before cognitive symptoms appear.

To bolster development of a simple, inexpensive, noninvasive test that can detect the risk of Alzheimer's disease, the Alzheimer's Association, the Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome, and the Global Down Syndrome Foundation ("Global") are funding two studies of potential new blood tests for Alzheimer's, including one that uses just one drop of blood:

One study will evaluate whether examining changes in ribonucleic acid (RNA) found in one drop of blood can accurately identify people who will develop Alzheimer's in individuals with Down syndrome who are at high risk for the disease. The study is being led by Marwan Sabbagh, M.D., Director of the Alzheimer's and Memory Disorders Division at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, and Matt Huentelman, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Neurogenomics Division Unit at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix.

Another study will test whether a specific set of blood proteins can identify who is at risk for developing Alzheimer's in a unique, high -risk population, individuals with Down syndrome. The study is being led by Nicole Schupf, Ph.D., M.P.H., Dr.Ph.H., Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, and Sid O'Bryant, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Disease Research at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth.

"Prevention of Alzheimer's dementia may be more effective and easily achieved than attempting to treat the disease once symptoms already exist and irreversible damage to the brain has already occurred," says Dean Hartley, Ph.D., Director of Science Initiatives for the Alzheimer's Association. "For this approach to be successful, we must be able to simply and accurately assess risk early in the disease process. The Alzheimer's Association and the Global Down Syndrome Foundation hope that these two exciting projects drive that effort forward."

"Autopsy is still the only way to definitively diagnose Alzheimer's disease," said Michelle Sie Whitten, President and CEO of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation. "If these researchers are successful we will be one step closer to catching Alzheimer's in its early stages and hopefully then be able to treat people with the disease earlier and actually prevent dementia from occurring, when new treatment options become available."

The grant awards are part of $1 million in new funding for Down syndrome-related Alzheimer's disease research. Four projects will receive $250,000 each through the joint funding effort.

Nearly all adults with Down syndrome begin developing the brain changes of Alzheimer's in their 30s. By age 55 or 60, it is estimated 55-70% will develop dementia. Because people with Down syndrome are at high risk for Alzheimer's, answers to important research questions about the disease may be developed more quickly in this population than by studying people with sporadic, late-onset Alzheimer's, where symptoms appear most often after age 65 - and in many cases not until the 70s or 80s.

"It used to be common for individuals with Down syndrome to die in their 30s, but because of medical advances they are now regularly living into their 50s and 60s. The irony is that they are now facing dementia due to Alzheimer's disease," says Huntington Potter, Ph.D., Director of Alzheimer's Research at the Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome and a Professor of Neurology at the University of Colorado, Denver. "At the same time, questions about Alzheimer's may be answered more quickly by studying this disease in people with Down syndrome because of their high risk for Alzheimer's and the earlier onset. Through this approach, people with Down syndrome have the opportunity to further our understanding of Alzheimer's disease and we have the opportunity to help this population."

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Scientists are not sure exactly why individuals with Down syndrome are at high risk for Alzheimer's disease but past research shows that a gene on chromosome 21 codes for the amyloid precursor protein (APP) that gets cut into fragments that accumulate into the hallmark amyloid brain plaques of Alzheimer's. People with Down syndrome are born with an extra copy of chromosome 21.

"The hope for our study is that the identification of RNA biomarkers for Alzheimer's could be used in a non-invasive blood test that requires just one drop of blood to assess an individual's risk of developing the disease, similar to the way a person with diabetes checks their blood sugar," says Sabbagh. "If we can learn early on that a person is at risk, the goal would be to start preventative therapies immediately. This could be a game changer."

"Our research could provide new information about potential biomarkers, including protein changes detected in blood, that could more accurately and easily predict the risk for Alzheimer's disease in people with Down syndrome," says Schupf. "If successful, we believe there is a chance that these biomarkers could also be used to assess Alzheimer's risk in all groups of people."

The Alzheimer's Association is the largest nonprofit funder of Alzheimer's research, having awarded more than $350 million to over 2,300 projects since 1982. The Association currently supports more than 350 ongoing research projects in 21 countries totaling more than $82 million.

The Global Down Syndrome Foundation raises funds for the Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome to underwrite critical research benefiting people with Down syndrome. To date, $5.7 million in research grants has been given to 33 investigators.

The two other research projects the Alzheimer's Association and Global are funding through the joint grant award effort are:

A test of a potential Alzheimer's drug treatment that reduces levels of toxic protein fragments in the brain of a mouse model of Down syndrome. The project is led by William Mobley, M.D., Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Executive Director of UCSD's Down Syndrome Center for Research and Treatment.

A study to determine whether a protein called Dyrk1A influences the build-up of brain proteins that lead to the formation of plaques and tangles that are key features of Alzheimer's in a mouse model of Down syndrome. Dyrk1A is created by one of the genes on chromosome 21 and is overabundant in the brains of people with Down syndrome. The study is led by Fei Liu, Ph.D., Head of Molecular Neuroscience for the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc. at the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Staten Island.

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Alzheimer's Association

Olfactory testing uses extended to Alzheimer’s disease

Published on November 20, 2015 at 5:15 PM · No Comments

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By Eleanor McDermid, Senior medwireNews Reporter

A simple olfactory test may help to identify people at increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia, suggest findings from a population-based study.

Olfactory dysfunction, already considered a strong risk indicator for Parkinson’s disease, significantly predicted both amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and further progression to AD dementia among 1430 cognitively normal people aged an average of 79.5 years.

Rosebud Roberts (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA) and study co-authors suggest that “odor identification tests may have use for early detection of persons at risk of cognitive outcomes.”

The latest one

A slow walking speed was associated with a higher level of brain amyloid deposits in a population of older adults at a high risk of developing dementia in a new study.

The study, published online in Neurology December 2, was conducted by a team led by Natalia del Campo, PhD, University Hospital Toulouse, France.

 NEW BIOMARKER FOR ALZHEIMER”S diagnosis http://www.news-medical.net/news/20160209/New-discovery-takes-medical-professionals-a-leap-forward-to-effectively-diagnose-Alzheimers-disease.aspx

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20160211/TAU-research-highlights-neuroprotective-potential-of-protein-protectant-drug-candidate-SKIP.aspxActivity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP), essential for brain formation, is frequently mutated in children on the autism spectrum. In older men and women, ADNP expression in the blood is correlated with cognition and further altered in Alzheimer's disease. While the three-to-one ratio of autism in boys to girls is well known, as is the greater number of female Alzheimer's patients than male Alzheimer's patients, the reasons for these phenomena -- and the theory that men and women may have different brain constitutions -- remain in hot dispute.

New research from Tel Aviv University highlights the neuroprotective potential of SKIP, a four-amino-acid peptide ADNP-replacement therapy developed at the university, and the marked difference in the nerve cell communication in male and female mice. If researchers come to understand how ADNP -- an activity-related neuroprotective protein that is a major regulatory gene -- acts differently in males and females, drugs for potential therapeutics can be optimized to treat both autism and Alzheimer's disease.

The research was led by Prof. Illana Gozes, the incumbent of the Lily and Avraham Gildor Chair for the Investigation of Growth Factors, Head of the Elton Laboratory for Molecular Neuroendocrinology at TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and a member of TAU's Adams Super Center for Brain Studies and the Sagol School of Neuroscience. It was recently published in Molecular Psychiatry.

activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP), the levels of which can be easily monitored in routine blood tests. The study also found that ADNP levels tested in the blood correlate with higher IQ in healthy older adults.A new discovery by Tel Aviv University, Technion (Rambam Medical Center), and Harvard University researchers takes the medical community a leap forward in the process of effectively screening and diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. The new study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, proposes a new biomarker for cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease: activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP), the levels of which can be easily monitored in routine blood tests. The study also found that ADNP levels tested in the blood correlate with higher IQ in healthy older adults.discovery by Tel Aviv University, Technion (Rambam Medical Center), and Harvard University researchers takes the medical community a leap forward in the process of effectively screening and diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. The new study, published in the A new discovery by Tel Aviv University, Technion (Rambam Medical Center), and Harvard University researchers takes the medical community a leap forward in the process of effectively screening and diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. The new study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, proposes a new biomarker for cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease: activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP), the levels of which can be easily monitored in routine blood tests. The study also found that ADNP levels tested in the blood correlate with higher IQ in healthy older adults.Medical professionals have to conduct a long series of tests to assess a patient's memory impairment and cognitive skills, functional abilities, and behavioral changes to accurately diagnose Alzheimer's disease. They also have to execute costly brain imagining scans and even, sometimes, invasive cerebral spinal fluid tests to rule out other diseases. The process is laborious at best -- and subjective at worst.

A new discovery by Tel Aviv University, Technion (Rambam Medical Center), and Harvard University researchers takes the medical community a leap forward in the process of effectively screening and diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. The new study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, proposes a new biomarker for cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease: activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP), the levels of which can be easily monitored in routine blood tests. The study also found that ADNP levels tested in the blood correlate with higher IQ in healthy older adults.

The research was led by Prof. Illana Gozes, the incumbent of the Lily and Avraham Gildor Chair for the Investigation of Growth Factors and former director of the Adams Super Center for Brain Studies at TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and a member of TAU's Sagol School of Neuroscience, conducted by TAU PhD student Anna Malishkevich and spearheaded by Dr. Gad Marshall, Dr. Aaron Schultz, and Prof. Reisa Sperling of Harvard University, and Prof. Judith Aharon-Peretz of Rambam Medical Center - The Technion Institute of Technology.

A step to early intervention

Significant increases in ADNP RNA levels were observed in patients ranging from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's dementia. ADNP levels tested in plasma and serum samples, as well as white blood cell RNA levels, distinguished among cognitively normal elderly, MCI, and Alzheimer's dementia participants.

For the purpose of the cross-sectional study, the investigators analyzed blood samples taken from 42 healthy adults, MCI patients, and Alzheimer's disease patients at Rambam Medical Center in Israel. After comparing the ADNP expression in the blood samples, the researchers prepared plasma samples and once again compared the protein levels.

A multicenter study led by Christian Haass and Michael Ewers of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich has identified a biomarker associated with the activation of an innate immune response to neural damage during early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

 Evidence is mounting that complaints of subjective memory loss, also known as subjective cognitive impairment (SCI), are indeed indicators of future cognitive impairment and should be addressed, Alzheimer's disease experts say.In a session here at the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) 2016 Annual Meeting, researchers presented and summarized the growing body of data showing that patients' memory complaints should not be taken lightly.

Scientists find tau protein as better marker of Alzheimer's disease 

A buildup of plaque and dysfunctional proteins in the brain are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. While much Alzheimer's research has focused on accumulation of the protein amyloid beta, researchers have begun to pay closer attention to another protein, tau, long associated with this disease but not studied as thoroughly, in part, because scientists only recently have developed effective ways to image tau.

A simple, rapid test called the Head Turning Sign (HTS) may help to assess the presence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia.Patients who turn their head toward their caregiver for assistance or cues to help them answer simple questions are more likely to have AD dementia than mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a new study shows.

. Mun MJ, Kim JH, Choi JY, Kim MS, Jang WC, Lee JJ, Eun YL, Kwak SJ, Kim KW, Lee SB: Polymorphisms of small ubiquitin-related modifier genes are associated with risk of Alzheimer's disease in Korean: A case-control study. J Neurol Sci; 2016 May 15;364:122-7

[Fulltext service] Download fulltext PDF of this article and others, as many as you want.[Source] The source of this record is MEDLINE®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

[Title] Polymorphisms of small ubiquitin-related modifier genes are associated with risk of Alzheimer's disease in Korean: A case-control study.

Sumoylation regulates transcription factor transactivation, protein-protein interactions, and appropriate subcellular localization of certain proteins.

Previous studies have shown that sumoylation of amyloid precursor protein (APP) is associated with decreased levels of amyloid beta (Aβ) proteins, suggesting that sumoylation may play a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

We investigated the association between polymorphisms of the SUMO genes and the risk of AD.

Our study subjects consisted of 144 AD patients and 335 healthy controls without dementia.

We focused on tagged single nucleotide polymorphisms (tagSNPs) of the SUMO1 and SUMO2 genes.

The tagSNPs were amplified by PCR and sequenced.

We used binary logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations between SUMO gene polymorphisms and the risk of AD.

We found that rs12472035 polymorphism of SUMO1 was significantly associated with an increased risk of AD in male group (the CT genotype of rs12472035: adjusted OR=8.737, 95% CI=2.041-37.41, p-value=0.003).

In addition, two polymorphisms of SUMO2 were significantly associated with an increased risk of AD in female group (the GA genotype of rs35271045: adjusted OR=2.879, 95% CI=1.399-5.924, p-value=0.004; and the TC genotype of rs9913676: adjusted OR=2.460, 95% CI=1.197-5.057, p-value=0.014).

Furthermore, three combinations were associated with an increased risk of AD.

Our data suggest that three individual polymorphisms and three combinations may be potential risk factors for AD in Korean population.

Genetic risk score may help detect Alzheimer's disease risk in healthy young adults 

New research shows that a genetic risk score may detect those at higher risk for Alzheimer's disease long before symptoms appear—even possibly in healthy young adults, according to a study published in the July 6, 2016, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

New mouse model reveals how Alzheimer's causes dementia 

Using a novel, newly developed mouse model that mimics the development of Alzheimer's disease in humans, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have been able to determine that a one-two punch of major biological "insults" must occur in the brain to cause the dementia that is the hallmark of the disease.

A new classification system for biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease that includes measures of amyloid (A), tau (T), and neurodegeneration (N) has been proposed.

The system, described in a paper published online July 1 in Neurology, includes different ways of measuring all three

The latest one saliva test for amyloide

Scientists discover gene that may open new door to developing treatments for Alzheimer's diseaseScientists discover gene that may open new door to developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease

Scientists at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg have identified a gene that may provide a new starting point for developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Edible and medicinal mushrooms show potential to mitigate neurodegenerative diseasesEdible and medicinal mushrooms show potential to mitigate neurodegenerative diseases

Certain edible and medicinal mushrooms contain bioactive compounds that may enhance nerve growth in the brain and protect against neurotoxic stimuli such as inflammation that contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Tests that measure the sense of smell may soon become common in neurologists' offices. Scientists have been finding increasing evidence that the sense of smell declines sharply in the early stages of Alzheimer's, and now a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania published today in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease confirms that administering a simple "sniff test" can enhance the accuracy of diagnosing this dreaded disease.

The sniff test also appears to be useful for diagnosing a pre-dementia condition called mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which often progresses to Alzheimer's dementia within a few years.

Neurologists have been eager to find new ways to identify people who are at high risk of Alzheimer's dementia but do not yet show any symptoms. There is a widespread consensus that Alzheimer's medications now under development may not work after dementia has set in.

"There's the exciting possibility here that a decline in the sense of smell can be used to identify people at risk years before they develop dementia," said principal investigator David R. Roalf, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of Psychiatry at Penn.

Roalf and his colleagues used a simple, commercially available test known as the Sniffin' Sticks Odor Identification Test, in which subjects must try to identify 16 different odors. They administered the sniff test, and a standard cognitive test (the Montreal Cognitive Assessment), to 728 elderly people.

The subjects had already been evaluated by doctors at Penn with an array of neurological methods, and according to expert consensus had been placed in one of three categories: "healthy older adult," "mild cognitive impairment," or "Alzheimer's dementia." Roalf and his team used the results from the cognitive test alone, or combined with the sniff test, to see how well they identified subjects in each category.

The increasing use of biomarkers, such as β amyloid and tau, to diagnose Alzheimer's disease (AD) will likely lead to more accurate estimates of the true incidence and prevalence of the disease, concludes a new special report from the Alzheimer's Association (AA).

The report is included in the association's annual "2017 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures" document.

AD biomarkers have the potential to facilitate earlier and more accurate diagnosis and treatment, according to the report, authored by Heather M. Snyder, PhD, senior director, medical & scientific operations, Alzheimer's Association, and colleagues.

A new study published in PLOS Medicine's Special Issue on Dementia has found that the metabolism of omega-3 and omega-6 unsaturated fatty acids in the brain are associated with the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

Study reveals early indication of Alzheimer’s in adults with normal cognition 

A new study led by the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California (USC) reveals that older adults with elevated levels of brain-clogging plaques, yet normal cognition, experience faster mental decline, suggestive of Alzheimer's disease. The study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association on June 13 presented the earliest precursor—the toxic and sticky protein as part of the disease, before symptoms arise.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acn3.431/full

Full open paper for your convenience

High-definition eye scan could reveal crucial warning signs of Alzheimer's disease

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August 17, 2017

Cedars-Sinai neuroscience investigators have found that Alzheimer's disease affects the retina – the back of the eye – similarly to the way it affects the brain. The study also revealed that an investigational, noninvasive eye scan could detect the key signs of Alzheimer's disease years before patients experience symptoms.

Using a high-definition eye scan developed especially for the study, researchers detected the crucial warning signs of Alzheimer's disease: amyloid-beta deposits, a buildup of toxic proteins. The findings represent a major advancement toward identifying people at high risk for the debilitating condition years sooner.

The study, published today in JCI Insight, comes amid a sharp rise in the number of people affected by the disease. Today, more than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease. That number is expected to triple by 2050, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

"The findings suggest that the retina may serve as a reliable source for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis," said the study's senior lead author, Maya Koronyo-Hamaoui, PhD, a principal investigator and associate professor in the departments of Neurosurgery and Biomedical Sciences at Cedars-Sinai.

"One of the major advantages of analyzing the retina is the repeatability, which allows us to monitor patients and potentially the progression of their disease."

Yosef Koronyo, MSc, a research associate in the Department of Neurosurgery and first author on the study, said another key finding from the new study was the discovery of amyloid plaques in previously overlooked peripheral regions of the retina. He noted that the plaque amount in the retina correlated with plaque amount in specific areas of the brain.

"Now we know exactly where to look to find the signs of Alzheimer's disease as early as possible," said Koronyo.

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Keith L. Black, MD, chair of Cedars-Sinai's Department of Neurosurgery and director of the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute, who co-led the study, said the findings offer hope for early detection when intervention could be most effective.

"Our hope is that eventually the investigational eye scan will be used as a screening device to detect the disease early enough to intervene and change the course of the disorder with medications and lifestyle changes," said Black.

For decades, the only way to officially diagnose the debilitating condition was to survey and analyze a patient's brain after the patient died. In recent years, physicians have relied on positron emission tomography (PET) scans of the brains of living people to provide evidence of the disease but the technology is expensive and invasive, requiring the patient to be injected with radioactive tracers.

In an effort to find a more cost-effective and less invasive technique, the Cedars-Sinai research team collaborated with investigators at NeuroVision Imaging, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, University of Southern California, and UCLA to translate their noninvasive eye screening approach to humans.

The published results are based on a clinical trial conducted on 16 Alzheimer's disease patients who drank a solution that includes curcumin, a natural component of the spice turmeric. The curcumin causes amyloid plaque in the retina to "light up" and be detected by the scan. The patients were then compared to a group of younger, cognitively normal individuals.

Source:

Simple odor identification tests may help track progression of Alzheimer's disease

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August 16, 2017

Odor identification tests may help scientists track the evolution of the disease in persons at risk

By the time you start losing your memory, it`s almost too late. That`s because the damage to your brain associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) may already have been going on for as long as twenty years. Which is why there is so much scientific interest in finding ways to detect the presence of the disease early on. Scientists now believe that simple odor identification tests may help track the progression of the disease before symptoms actually appear, particularly among those at risk.

"Despite all the research in the area, no effective treatment has yet been found for AD," says Dr. John Breitner, the director of the Centre for Studies on Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease at the Douglas Mental Health Research Centre of McGill University. He is one of the authors of the study on the subject that was recently published in the journal Neurology. "But, if we can delay the onset of symptoms by just five years, we should be able to reduce the prevalence and severity of these symptoms by more than 50%."

Bubble gum or gasoline?

Close to 300 people with an average age of 63 who are at risk of developing AD because they had a parent who had suffered from the disease, were asked to take multiple choice scratch-and-sniff tests to identify scents as varied as bubble gum, gasoline or the smell of a lemon. One hundred of them also volunteered to have regular lumbar punctures to measure the quantities of various AD-related proteins whose presence in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

The researchers found that those with the most difficulty in identifying odors were those in whom other, purely biological indicators of AD, were most evident.

"This is the first time that anyone has been able to show clearly that the loss of the ability to identify smells is correlated with biological markers indicating the advance of the disease," says Marie-Elyse Lafaille-Magnan, a doctoral student at McGill and the first author on the study. "For more than 30 years, scientists have been exploring the connection between memory loss and the difficulty that patients may have in identifying different odors. This makes sense because it's known that the olfactory bulb (involved with the sense of smell) and the entorhinal cortex (involved with memory and naming of odors) are among the first brain structures first to be affected by the disease."

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A cheaper way to track progression of Alzheimer's disease

"This means that a simple smell test may potentially be able to give us information about the progression of the disease that is similar to the much more invasive and expensive tests of the cerebrospinal fluid that are currently being used," the director of research program on Aging, Cognition and Alzheimer's disease of the Douglas Institute and one of the authors on the study. "However, problems identifying smells may be indicative of other medical conditions apart from AD and so should not be substituted for the current tests."

The researchers caution more that far more work needs to be done to see how changes in a person's ability to identify smells over time relates to the progression of the disease itself. For the time being, smell tests are simply one more avenue to explore as researchers look for ways to identify the disease before the symptoms actually begin to appear.

Source:

https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/could-olfactory-loss-point-alzheimers-disease-269504

Saliva testing of amyloid-β42 (Aβ42) levels may contribute to the prevention of Alzheimer's disease (AD) by determining AD risk and guidance on the use of prophylactic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), new research suggests.

Canadian investigators used a salivary ELISA test to measure Aβ42levels in saliva. They found that elevations in Aβ42 levels in persons at risk for developing AD were similar to levels in individuals who already had AD.

Given that AD is a neuroinflammatory process that begins as early as 10 years prior to the onset of cognitive deficits, the researchers suggest that NSAIDs, initiated a decade prior to the typical age of AD onset, may be effective in staving off these inflammatory effects in people whose Aβ42 concentrations are found to be high.

"We have known since the 1990s that people taking anti-inflammatory drugs are spared from getting AD, but what we didn't know then and know now is how soon before the disease you have to start taking these medications and roughly how much you need," lead author Patrick McGeer, MD, PhD, professor emeritus, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, told Medscape Medical News.

"The answers have been very slow in coming, but the knowledge that you can learn a lot from measuring saliva has provided the missing link," he said.

The report was published online March 13 in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

Back home, they say if someone can't find his car key (forgot where he put it) this will be the first sign.

Article Classification of Alzheimer disease among susceptible brain regions