The new dementia test raises more questions than answers

Our understanding of the mechanism of illness is also changing in ways that can make early diagnosis more valuable. The preclinical stage of dementia is very long, sometimes as long as 20 years. In the meantime, scans and blood tests can detect subtle changes, but the symptoms have not yet appeared.

During this window, two proteins begin to appear in the brain of dementia patients: tau and amyloid. Researchers have struggled for years to pinpoint the role they play, but some now think there is an answer. In patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid forms entanglements and plaques in the space between brain cells. NS hypothesis That is, when a certain level is reached, tau protein, which is normally part of the neuronal scaffold, is triggered to transform from a normal state to a toxic state. That is what causes most of the symptoms by killing cells and blocking the ability of neurons to send clear signals.

June 2021 FDA has given expedited approval Aducanumab, the new drug for Alzheimer’s disease for the first time in 18 years. It is designed to attach to amyloid molecules and help the immune system remove them. However, this is a controversial approach, as drug treatments aimed at removing amyloid have not been able to make a big difference so far.

However, the timing of interventions can be very important in the new theory of dementia. With better early detection, drugs like aducanumab may be given when they still have time to make a difference. “If you remove amyloid very early, it’s probably when the real benefits come from,” says Koichev. If amyloid can be removed from the brain before it turns tau into toxic, it can probably delay or completely avoid the worst effects.

Combine easy-to-use digital tests with brain scans and blood tests to create an accurate map of how amyloid and tau proteins correlate with cognitive impairment and whether removing them makes a difference. Useful for. Koychev proposes to target the highest-risk group of people with regular assessments rather than a comprehensive approach to screening everyone.

But he still has a lot of disagreements in this area, Serious question Whether new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease work as expected. But in areas that lag behind cancer in terms of investment and interest from pharmaceutical companies, it has rejuvenated research after Habibi called it a “long-term drought.” Denning believes it is due to a combination of factors. The stigma of the illness, the aging of those who usually get it, and the fatalist “well, that’s what happens when you get older” attitude.

The situation is finally changing as the large and wealthy demographic cohort moves to the highest risk age groups. While tests like ICA target them, Koichev also wants them to “democratize access to brain health.”

They’re digital and semi-supervised, so you can use them wherever you can use your iPad. This means that you can reach people who are excluded from previous studies. This condition is often inhabited by a group of volunteers who do not accurately reflect the underlying population. It can also be taken more often to create a picture of an individual’s cognitive ability over time. Cognetivity has another iPhone app called OptiMind designed for home testing just for that purpose.

Appropriate treatments for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease may still be lacking, but early detection of them can change attitudes towards them, gain a better understanding of themselves, and invest in the solutions needed. May promote. “Brain health will be something people monitor and care for, just as you protect your physical health,” says Koichev.

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