Dementia Risk Linked To Blood-Protein Imbalance in Middle Age (nature.com) 24
A study that followed thousands of people over 25 years has identified proteins linked to the development of dementia if their levels are unbalanced during middle age. From a report: The findings, published in Science Translational Medicine on 19 July, could contribute to the development of new diagnostic tests, or even treatments, for dementia-causing diseases. Most of the proteins have functions unrelated to the brain. "We're seeing so much involvement of the peripheral biology decades before the typical onset of dementia," says study author Keenan Walker, a neuroscientist at the US National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Maryland. Equipped with blood samples from more than 10,000 participants, Walker and his colleagues questioned whether they could find predictors of dementia years before its onset by looking at a person's proteome -- the collection of all the proteins expressed throughout the body. They searched for any signs of dysregulation -- when proteins are at levels much higher or lower than normal.
The samples were collected as part of an ongoing study that began in 1987. Participants returned for examination six times over three decades, and during this time, around 1 in 5 of them developed dementia. The researchers found 32 proteins that, if dysregulated in people aged 45 to 60, were strongly associated with an elevated chance of developing dementia in later life. It is unclear how exactly these proteins might be involved in the disease, but the link is "highly unlikely to be due to just chance alone," says Walker.
The samples were collected as part of an ongoing study that began in 1987. Participants returned for examination six times over three decades, and during this time, around 1 in 5 of them developed dementia. The researchers found 32 proteins that, if dysregulated in people aged 45 to 60, were strongly associated with an elevated chance of developing dementia in later life. It is unclear how exactly these proteins might be involved in the disease, but the link is "highly unlikely to be due to just chance alone," says Walker.
Ehhh (Score:4, Informative)
A correlational study which finds this many factors at play doesn't really tell us much. Biological mechanisms are very complex, with secondary pathways, repair mechanisms, regulatory factors and much more. Even the condition of "Dementia" could have multiple independent mechanisms for getting there. Molecular biology is still very much fumbling in the dark and struggling to overcome the reductionist fallacy. Simply put, science is very good at studying a single independent variable if it can be isolated from all confounding factors. This has massively driven the research down a narrow (reductionist) path. Someone will try to use combinatorial chemistry to target the most strongly correlated protein in the study in the hope that it creates a new drug that works. But the true complexity of the condition will not be understood.
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I don't know how much this would contribute toward treatment, but it should do pretty well for early diagnosis. If correlation worked during the study, correlation will work outside of the study to about the same degree.
It's likely that looking directly at the proteins themselves would give you a handful of starting points for understanding the disease(s) but I don't think treatment would directly come from targeting the proteins as it is likely only a symptom.
It really could be directly tied to the protei
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It is so complicated, that at this point it is very difficult to say what is good and what it important.
If you
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See.. you are saying "... free radical damage is hard to imagine as useful...", so... you really expect your internal imagination to uncover the chemical mechanisms and importance of free radicals in human body? Human body is a complex chemical reactor, free radical
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It's a fair point about diagnosis in the abstract, but the article didn't mention the strength of the correlation, just what seemed like a rank-ordering... I guess the obvious question would be: how well can they early detect dementia already? And what does that really do in terms of corrective action that can be taken?
I used to be a molecular biologist, but increasingly I favor a systems biology approach. Dementia is likely to be a type of metabolic disorder, ie undesirable compounds build up until they
Re: Ehhh (Score:2)
They can detect it early, and it has a significant impact on the efficacy of treatments. The problem is that people donâ(TM)t detect it early. That is, they donâ(TM)t notice the effects and see a doctor before itâ(TM)s quite late on. A screening test that tells your doctor âoethis person should be monitored for dementiaâ should be really useful.
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I think you're misreading it - this isn't a 'here is what dementia is and we can treat it' thing, this is a 'here are some markers correlated with dementia, now we have an idea of where to look to confirm a link and for a treatable cause'.
They're nowhere near the fix it with medicine stage, this is an interesting and promising early research path.
So what, eat more beans? (Score:2)
I'm sure that will be the solution. It's always the solution unless some billionaire trying to convince the poors to eat bugs. Beans are good.
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Those sneaky billionaires. Always trying to get me to eat more beans and vote in laissez-faire politicians.
I mean, sure Bill Koch is a tad eccentric [denverpost.com] but old West cosplay seems like a hobby many of us could appreciate. And Gina Rinehart has a rather unpopular philosophy [latimes.com], but shouldn't she have a right to her opinions. And there is a quaintness to The Walton Family's contempt for educating [washingtonpost.com] poor people, let's go back to a golden era before Charles Dickens and the Victorian era. And who can forget Steve Schwarz
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Have you met Richard Stallman? Nothing about the guy screams eliteness. In fact I half expect to meet him panhandling off the highway exit.
Dementia (Score:2)
I'm going crazy over all these things that might cause dementia.
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And this study was just 36 years in the making.
Speaking as someone who's getting older (Score:2)
I fully support federal tax dollars going towards more of this research.
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32! (Score:4, Insightful)
32 proteins are going to have something like 32 factorial functions in the body - it will be almost impossible to isolate which combinations are doing what to the brain and what would happen if any of the mechanisms of action were changed by human therapy.
"Hey, theory says if we block this protein dementia risk will decrease at age 70!"
[blocks protein]
"Unfortunately the subjects' arms fell off at age 40"
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Related Headline: Researchers find previously unknown link between dementia and having arms.
Further reading: Electrolytes. Do plants crave them?