The disease needs to be detected
as early as possible and here we have the tool that appears to make that
possible. There is evidence that certain
therapeutic methods can at least stave of the onset of the disease itself, even
unto the last terminal year of the disease.
This was observed in the case of
a chess master who observed changes in performance, the year before his
death. It was discovered than through
autopsy that he suffered from the very late stage of the disease and had
avoided its expression for years.
So early is better and it is
never too late to take up a new hobby like chess.
The second item brings us the
same information. Having a second
language also postpones the mental effects of the disease by perhaps four
years.
I do not know if this indicates a
therapeutic action so much as an indication that intense learning efforts generate
greater complexity allowing greater facility in working around failure modes.
If we are learning anything, it
is that the brain is designed to work around physical damage which is pretty
amazing.
Preliminary New Blood Test to Detect Alzheimer’s Disease Uncovered
Released: 2/11/2011 1:05 PM EST
Newswise — DALLAS – Feb. 14, 2011 – UT Southwestern Medical
Center
This preliminary technology, which uses synthetic molecules to seek out
and identify disease-specific antibodies, also could be used eventually in the
development of specific biomarkers for a range of other hard-to-diagnose
diseases and conditions, including Parkinson’s disease and immune
system-related diseases like multiple sclerosis and lupus, the researchers
predict.
“One of the great challenges in treating patients with Alzheimer’s
disease is that once symptoms appear, it’s too late. You can’t un-ring the
bell,” said Dr. Dwight German, professor of psychiatry and an author of the
paper published in the Jan. 7 edition of Cell. “If we can find a way
to detect the disease in its earliest stages – before cognitive impairment
begins – we might be able to stop it in its tracks by developing new treatment
strategies.”
Because patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) exhibit immune system
activation and neurodegeneration in several brain regions, researchers in the
study hypothesized that there may be numerous antibodies in the serum of
affected patients that are specific to the disease and can serve as a
biomarker.
Antigens – substances such as protein from a virus or bacteria that
triggers an immune response – traditionally have been necessary for the
discovery of antibody biomarkers. It has been impossible previously to identify
an antibody (a type of targeted immune molecule) without first knowing the
antigen that triggers its production.
The new study, however, challenges conventional wisdom and uses
synthetic molecules (peptoids) rather than antigens to successfully detect
signs of disease in patients’ blood samples. These peptoids have many
advantages; they can be modified easily and can be produced quickly in
relatively large amounts at lower cost.
The adaptive immune system is thought to be a rich source of protein
biomarkers, but diagnostically useful antibodies remain undiscovered for a
large number of diseases, Dr. German said. This is, in part, because the
antigens that trigger an immune response in many diseases are unknown. The
technology behind this discovery is essentially an immune-system reader, which
is designed to pick out antibodies without knowing in advance which ones to
look for.
The researchers used a combination library of several thousand peptoids
to screen serum samples from mice with multiple sclerosis-like symptoms as well
as from healthy control mice. The particular peptoids that retained more
antibodies from the blood samples of the diseased animals were identified as
potential agents for capturing diagnostically useful molecules.
The investigators then examined serum samples from six AD patients, six
healthy patients and six patients with Parkinson’s. Three peptoids were
identified that captured six times the IgG antibody levels in all of the
Alzheimer’s patients when compared to the control group or to the Parkinson’s
patients. Two of the peptoids were found to bind the same IgG antibody, while
the third was shown to bind to different antibodies – meaning there are at
least two candidate biomarkers for AD. Using an additional set of 16 normal
control subjects and 10 subjects at the very early state of AD, the three
candidate biomarkers identified AD with 90 percent accuracy.
“The results of this study, though preliminary, show great potential
for becoming a landmark,” said Dr. German.
Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the study were Dr. Ramon
Diaz-Arrastia, professor of neurology and neurotherapeutics; Steven Connell,
research technician; and Dr. Linda Hynan, professor of clinical sciences. Others
include senior author and former UT Southwestern faculty member Dr. Thomas
Kodadek, now at Scripps Florida Research Institute; Dr. Anne Gocke, former
postdoctoral fellow in translational medicine; and researchers with Opko Health
Laboratories.
Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health.
Visit http://www.utsouthwestern.org/neurosciences to
learn more about UT Southwestern’s clinical services in neurosciences,
including psychiatry.
This news release is available on our World Wide Web home page at
To automatically receive news releases from UT Southwestern via e-mail,
Learning a Second Language Protects Against Alzheimer's
By Clara Moskowitz , LiveScience Senior Writer
LiveScience.com – Wed, 23 Feb, 2011
Scientists closing in on Alzheimer's tests
That's the takeaway from recent brain research, which shows that bilingual
people's brains function better and for longer after developing the
disease.
Psychologist Ellen Bialystok and her colleagues at York University
in Toronto
While all the patients had similar levels of cognitive impairment,
the researchers found that those who were bilingual had been diagnosed with
Alzheimer's about four years later, on average, than those who spoke just one
language. And the bilingual people reported their symptoms had begun about five
years later than those who spoke only one language.
"What we've been able to show is that in these patients… all of
whom have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and are all at the same level of
impairment, the bilinguals on average are four to five years older — which
means that they've been able to cope with the disease," Bialystok
She presented her findings today (Feb. 18) here at the annual meeting
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Some results of
this research were published in the Nov. 9, 2010 issue of the journal
Neurology.
CT brain scans of the Alzheimer's patients showed that, among patients
who are functioning at the same level, those who are bilingual have more
advanced brain deterioration than those who spoke just one language. But this
difference wasn't apparent from the patients' behaviors, or their abilities to
function. The bilingual people acted like monolingual patients whose disease
was less advanced.
"Once the disease begins to compromise this region of the brain,
bilinguals can continue to function," Bialystok
The researchers think this protection stems from brain differences between
those speak one language and those
who speak more than one. In particular, studies show bilingual people
exercise a brain network called the executive control system more. The
executive control system involves parts of the prefrontal cortex and
other brain areas, and is the basis of our ability to think in complex ways, Bialystok
"It's the most important part of your mind," she said.
"It controls attention and everything we think of as uniquely human
thought."
Bilingual people, the theory goes, constantly have to exercise this
brain system to prevent their two languages from interfering with one another.
Their brains must sort through multiple options for each word, switch back and
forth between the two languages, and keep everything straight.
And all this work seems to confer a cognitive benefit — an ability to
cope when the going gets tough and the brain is besieged with a
disease such as Alzheimer's.
"It's not that being bilingual prevents the disease," Bialystok
Moreover, other research suggests that these benefits of bilingualism
apply not only to those who are raised from birth speaking a second
language, but also to people who take up a foreign tongue later in life.
"The evidence that we have is not only with very early
bilinguals," said psychologist Teresa Bajo of the University of Granada in
Spain , who was not involved
in Bialystok
This article was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a
sister site to LiveScience.
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