Alzheimer's Plaques Imaged in Living Brains

Yves writes "Japanese scientists have developed a technique to detect traces of Alzheimer's disease (amyloid plaques in the brain) on living mice... Until now, the standard way to confirm the presence of the plaques, and thus the disease, was by autopsy. The question remains: Do you really want to know early that you have Alzheimer disease, as there is no effective treatment yet?"

No effective treatment??

[DaoudaW]

Perhaps you meant to say no cure, but there are several effective treatments. My father-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about 5 years ago. The progress of the disease has been significantly curtailed by medication. It has also been shown that higher level thinking/learning has a significant protective effect from the symptoms of Alzheimer's. Yes, I would want to be tested specifically because there are currently effective medications and therapy which prolong quality of life.

Re:No effective treatment??

[Ayaress]

Even before they had effective medications, it was better to know ahead. They determined a long time ago that people who kept an active mind tended to delay the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms. Even so much as doing the daily crossword puzzels in the newspaper and staying active is supposed to help. Beyond that, there have been therapies and even simple lifestyle changes available for a while that can be made to make dealing with symptoms easier if and when they do develop, and as a last resort, most visiting physician services have Alzheimer's specialists who can help.

Make your Backups early and often.

[infonography]

I prefer backup to DVD. You never know when your system will crash and your may have to restore from the install disks. And yes I did read the real article, [newscientist.com]not the agenda-ridden screed.

Re:Want to know?

[poopdeville]

She worries far more about high blood pressure than Alzheimers.

I know what you meant, but you should tighten up your semantics before some insensitive clod mentions that this isn't necessarily a good thing.

Re:No effective treatment??

[FleaPlus]

There was actually an article on this a few days ago.

Original research paper in Cell: Environmental Enrichment Reduces Alpha-Beta Levels and Amyloid Deposition in Transgenic Mice [cell.com]
Summary in Cell: Exercise Your Amyloid [sciencedirect.com]

Article in Medical News Today [medicalnewstoday.com]

Quote: Mice that keep their brains and bodies busy in an "enriched" environment of chew toys, running wheels, and tunnels have lower levels of the peptides and brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease compared to mice raised in more sparse conditions, according to a new study in the 11 March issue of the journal Cell.

Levels of b-amyloid peptides, which clump together to form the brain "tangles" or plaques that are toxic to nerve cells in Alzheimer's disease, were significantly lower in the enriched mice, say Sangram Sisodia, of the University of Chicago, and colleagues. The enriched mice may have been better equipped than their less-stimulated counterparts to sweep these peptides out of the brain, according to the researchers' analysis of gene and enzyme expression in the animals.

"This goes back to the old idea of use it or lose it, that using your brain keeps it more active," Sisodia says. "It's more common sense than anything, but what we didn't previously appreciate is that it might affect the pathology that is characteristic of Alzheimer's disease." ...

The researchers also found intriguing clues that an active body, as well as an active brain, might be a key factor in reaping the benefits of an enriched environment. The most physically active of the mice in the elaborately furnished cages had the most dramatic reductions in amyloid peptides and deposits. At least among this small group of mouse workout devotees, "exercise appears to play a significant role in modulating amyloid deposition," Sisodia and colleagues write.

The researchers caution, however, that it will take more experiments with larger numbers of animals to determine exactly how enriched environments benefit mice, whether through increased physical activity, a boost in visual, social, and spatial stimuli that awaken the brain, or some combination of all of these factors.

Sisodia says exercise, along with any kind of mental activity from reading to doing the crossword puzzle, are probably the equivalent of chew toys and running wheels for humans. "It's all very important in keeping the mind active and potentially staving off effects of old age."

Re:Even though we can already test...

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah, genetic tests almost never determine whether you will get the disease; it only increases the conditional probability that you will get it. The idea is that you take the genetic test, and if you score positive on that, you take the imaging test every five years or so. If you score positive on that, then you start to worry.