DIAN, which includes research centers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, is the largest study yet of these rare forms of dominantly inherited Alzheimer's. To date, 184 participants have been enrolled, nearly half the overall recruitment goal. This has allowed initial comparisons among participants who carry a genetic mutation for Alzheimer's but are still asymptomatic, those who have a mutation and have Alzheimer symptoms, and those who do not have a mutation and thus are unaffected.
By looking at the age of symptom onset in a parent who passed an Alzheimer's mutation to a DIAN participant, scientists can establish an estimated age of onset for a study participant. If a parent developed dementia at the age of 50, they would expect a child who inherited the mutation to develop dementia at roughly the same age. As a result, scientists can start amassing a detailed chronology of disease progression that covers the many years Alzheimer's is active in the brain but still before the onset of dementia.
"Based on what we see in our population, brain chemistry changes can be detected up to 20 years before the expected age of symptomatic onset," Bateman says. "These Alzheimer's-related changes can be specifically targeted for prevention trials in patients with inherited forms of Alzheimer's."
Washington University researchers, including Bateman, Morris and Anne Fagan, PhD, research professor of neurology, will report initial results from DIAN, including confirmation of the value of disease indicators from cerebrospinal fluid analyses. Participants who carry the mutations but are still asymptomatic have significantly lower levels
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| Contact: Michael C. Purdy purdym@wustl.edu 314-286-0122 Washington University School of Medicine Source:Eurekalert |