Early-warning eye test for Alzheimer’s
Find could boost chance of effective treatment
ALZHEIMER’S disease could be caught by a simple eye test – 20 years before symptoms show.
A study of patients with the condition found their retinas contained more than twice as much of a telltale brain protein.
Scientists believe this begins to gather decades before symptoms appear, offering a chance for early treatment when drugs and lifestyle changes are more likely to work.
It opens the door to an inexpensive screening programme that could flag up those most at risk who would then undergo more extensive scanning. The non-invasive technique uses the fluorescence of curcumin, the main chemical in the curry spice turmeric, to light up amyloid deposits at the back of the eye.
It’s long been thought there is a link between the amount of this rogue protein in the eye and amyloid in the brain. The retina is formed from the same tissue as the brain when a baby is developing in the womb.
Neurosurgeon Professor Maya Koronyo-Hamaoui, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, said: “Analysis of retinal amyloid index scores showed a 2.1fold increase in Alzheimer’s disease patients.”
She added that previous research has suggested amyloid plaques appear in the retinas of Alzheimer’s patients in the early stages of the disease.
The study published in JCI Insight involved Alzheimer’s patients both alive and dead.
There are about 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK, a figure that will rise to a million by 2025.
Most are diagnosed too late to do anything about it.
Earlier this week, former football manager Jimmy Calderwood revealed he had been diagnosed with younger onset Alzheimer’s disease.