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Researchers successfully predict the course of Alzheimer’s disease

In a study published January 1 in the journal Science Translational Medicine, American scientists explain how they managed to find a way to predict the course of damage and loss of neurons caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

“One of the first things people want to know when they are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease is just what the future holds for them or their loved ones,” said Professor Rabinovici, program director. PET (positron emission tomography) imaging from the University of California, San Francisco.

Patients want to know if the evolution of sickness will be fast, if memory loss will start early, how long the patient will be able to live independently etc. Questions that remained unanswered until then Le Figaro.

The disease is characterized by two types of lesions: deposits of amyloid proteins, which form plaques between neurons, and deposits of Tau proteins inside neurons. The scientists therefore performed imaging with the injection of a radiotracer to see the Tau lesions. According to the researchers, it is possible, from these images, to predict the evolution of the patient’s symptoms.

“Very clearly, we could see that for each patient, the location and topography of cerebral atrophy followed the intensity and topography of Tau pathology at the start of the study (and not of amyloid pathology) “Explains Renaud La Joie, first author of the study, to Le Figaro. “In patients with early clinical stages of dementiaAlzheimer, the amount and distribution of Tau pathology can predict future brain atrophy. Tau imagery could therefore have a very important place in refining the prognosis of patients, “he continues.

It would then be possible for scientists to know more quickly whether a treatment is effective or not, and to target the areas of the brain that will be affected.

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