March 21 is World Down Syndrome Day.
The Alzheimer’s Unit – Down from the Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona and the Catalan Down Syndrome Foundation have reached the thousand people served and will soon test a vaccine against Alzheimer’s in people with Down syndrome, the hospital has reported on the occasion of World Down Syndrome Day.
Sant Pau hospital is one center pointer in the care of people with Down syndrome and has the only Alzheimer-Down unit in all of Spain, specialized in the diagnosis, care and clinical research of this neurodegenerative disease. Coinciding with its tenth anniversary, it has reached a thousand people attended.
The director of the Sant Pau Alzheimer-Down Unit and director of Neurological Diseases, Neuroscience and Mental Health of the Research Institute of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau – IIB Sant Pau, Juan Forteahas affirmed that a screening is carried out among all people with Down Syndromefrom the age of 35which consists of visits to Neurology, Neuropsychology and Nursing at least once a year.
This is due to from the age of 35 it is known that this group has amyloid protein in the brain: “When these people have already developed symptoms, visits are every six months or as often as necessary,” he added.
Vaccine
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The IIB Sant Pau is about to start the first rehearsal phase II clinical with an active vaccine against amyloid in patients with Down syndrome and that in the coming months they will begin to recruit the first patients.
Researchers are aware that it is possible that people with Down syndrome may have a higher risk: “We must keep in mind the relationship between risk and benefit; we calculate that even 70% of deaths in adults with Down syndrome are caused by Alzheimer’s disease.
“When they reach 40 years of age, 100% present characteristic biological changes of Alzheimer’s in the brain and the average age of development of the disease is 54 years” affirms Juan Fortea. And he concludes “the figures are chilling, but for the first time we can imagine a future where we can contribute to change them“.
