Today there are few truly effective treatments against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, dementia or Parkinson's disease. One of the reasons this is so is that such conditions are usually diagnosed when the first symptoms have already appeared. But the truth is that the underlying neurodegeneration can go back years or decades. Consequently, by the time patients participate in clinical trials, it may be too late to alter the course of the disease.
This has been confirmed by researchers from the University of Cambridge, who have published a study in Alzheimer's
For their research, they turned to the UK Biobank biomedical database, which contains genetic and health information on half a million people in the United Kingdom, aged between 40 and 69 years. After the analysis, the researchers found deterioration in several areas of the brain that could manifest neurodegenerative diseases before the appearance of symptoms.
The researchers extracted information from the UK Biobank about the participants' health and disease diagnoses, as well as a battery of tests including problem solving, memory, reaction times and grip strength, as well as data on weight loss and gain and on the number of falls suffered by patients.
With all this information, they were able to figure out if any signs were present when the patients' measurements were first collected, five to nine years before their diagnosis.
Thus, they found that people who developed Alzheimer's or frontotemporal dementia obtained lower scores compared to healthy people in tasks of problem solving, reaction times, remembering lists of numbers, prospective memory and pair matching.
They were also more likely to have suffered a fall in the previous 12 months. And those patients who developed a rare neurological condition called progressive supranuclear palsy – which affects balance – were more than twice as likely as healthy individuals to have suffered a fall.
Across all conditions studied, also including Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, all patients reported worse overall health than at the start of the study.
The lead author of the research, Dr. Tim Rittman, from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge, explained that his findings can help identify people who can participate in clinical trials for possible new treatments.
“The problem with clinical trials is that, out of necessity, they often recruit patients with a diagnosis, but we know that by now they are already far along the path and their condition cannot be stopped. If we can find these people early enough, we will have a better chance of seeing if the drugs are effective,” he concluded in statements collected by the University of Cambridge.
