Alzheimer’s and Predicting the Disease

Finding any symptoms, which would predict the disease (memory loss, etc.) before the patients start showing serious clinical symptoms, has gained an important place in the clinical studies conducted on Alzheimer’s disease by scientists over the past few years.

Although Mild Behavioral Impairment, which is defined as the changes occurring in the normal course of behaviors of the elderlies, is included in the literature as a predictive symptom of the disease, it’s role on Alzheimer’s has not been confirmed yet.  In a study conducted by the McGill University (Lusier et al., 2020), it was found that the Mild Behavioral Impairment observed in elderlies would be a significant indicator of early dementia.

Amyloid plaque deposits, an important protein in Alzheimer’s disease, were measured using various brain imaging techniques (MRI and PET) in approximately one hundred elderly individuals with no cognitive disorders, within the scope of the study. A scale (MBI-C), which includes the mental disorder symptoms that might be associated with neurological diseases and which can be used on non-dementia patients, was utilized to measure the mild behavioral impairment levels of the participants.

As a result of the measurements, a direct correlation was found between the amounts of amyloid plaques, which play a significant part in Alzheimer’s disease, and the levels of mild behavioral impairment of the participants.

According to Dr. Serge Gauthier, Director of Alzheimer’s Research Unit at the McGill University, the striking part of the study is the fact that there are Mild Behavioral Impairment tests, which are easily accessible and usable, to help clinicians detect the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers who conducted the study want to confirm whether Mild Behavioral Impairment can predict Alzheimer’s Disease by conducting studies that reiterate the measurements of the participants in the upcoming periods.

REFERENCES:
– Lussier, F. Z., Pascoal, T. A., Chamoun, M., Therriault, J., Tissot, C., Savard, M., Kang, M. S., Mathotaarachchi, S., Benedet, A. L., Parsons, M., Qureshi, M., Thomas, É. M., Shin, M., Dion, L. A., Massarweh, G., Soucy, J. P., Tsai, I. H., Vitali, P., Ismail, Z., Rosa-Neto, P., … Gauthier, S. (2020). Mild behavioral impairment is associated with β-amyloid but not tau or neurodegeneration in cognitively intact elderly individuals. Alzheimer’s & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, 16(1), 192–199. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12007
– https://reporter.mcgill.ca/mcgill-researchers-identify-correlation-between-mild-behavioural-impairment-and-alzheimers/