Dementia: New culprits and potential treatment targets

a new study from USC shows that the leaking capillaries in the brain signal an early onset of Alzheimer's disease because they signal cognitive impairment before the appearance of the signature toxic protein amyloid and tau.The findings, published in the January issue of the 14th issue of the journal Nature Medicine, may help diagnose early and suggest new targets for drugs that can slow or prevent the onset of disease.The number of people over the age of 40 with Alzheimer's is expected to more than double to about 14 million, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently, five Alzheimer's drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to temporarily help with memory and thinking problems, but none can treat the underlying causes of the disease or slow its progression. The researchers believe that successful treatment will eventually involve a combination of drugs targeted at multiple targets.A five-year study of 161 older adults by the University of Southern California found that people with the worst memory had the most brain haemorrhage - whether or not they had abnormal protein amyloid and tau proteins.“ When we see blood vessels leaking, independent of tau and not dependent on amyloid proteins, when people have cognitive impairment at mild levels, this suggests that it may be a completely independent process or a very early process," said senior author Berislav Zlokovic, director of the Zilkha Institute of Neurogenetics at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. Inhealthy brain, the cells that make up the blood vessels bind together to form a barrier so that stray cells, pathogens, metals, and other unhealthy substances do not reach brain tissue. Scientists call it the blood-brain barrier. In some aging brains, seams between cells loosen and blood vessels become permeable.“ If the blood-brain barrier doesn't work properly, it could cause damage," said co-author Arthur Toga, director of the Stevens Institute for Neuroimaging and Information Technology at the University of Southern California at Keck School of Medicine. You may get into toxic proteins. Participantsthe study assessed their memory and thinking abilities through a series of tasks and tests, resulting in cognitive function and a "clinical dementia rating score." "Individuals who have been diagnosed with a disease that can lead to cognitive impairment have been excluded. The researchers used neuroimaging and cerebrospinal fluid analysis to measure the permeability or leakage of capillaries serving the brain's sea mass, and found a strong correlation between damage and leakage.“ The results are really eye-opening," said lead author Daniel Nate, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Southern California's Dornfis School of Literature, Arts and Sciences. "It doesn't matter if people have amyloid or tau pathology; They still have cognitive impairments. Researchersthat their findings represent a snapshot of time. In future studies, they hope to better understand how long cognitive problems occur after vascular damage occurs. Zlokovic said scientists are unlikely to give up amyloid and tau as biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease any time soon, "but we should add some vascular biomarkers to our kit." (China Pharmaceutical 123 Network)