WASHINGTON, D.C.: Alzheimer’s disease will be diagnosed and potentially prevented more than 20 years before symptoms of the crippling brain disorder appear under radical research to be undertaken in Australia this year.
Sydney researchers now have the technology to scan for Alzheimer’s with a simple eye test, replacing the need for costly brain scans or waiting to treat people once they are suffering the first signs of memory loss associated with the irreversible condition.
Alzheimer’s expert Professor Ralph Martins has acquired a $250,000 hyperspectral camera that scans eyes for the beta-amyloid protein in the brain.
High levels of the protein are indicative that a person has presymptomatic Alzheimer’s.
During the trial, Prof Martins will reduce the protein with doses of testosterone, with plans to supercharge the effectiveness of the hormone by combining it with fish oil and curcumin.
“We would see in the future a combination of these ingredients that may have a much more powerful effect on lowering amyloid,” Prof Martins said.
The protein can be viewed in the eye up to 20 years before Alzheimer’s starts to affect memory and brain function.
“All (treatment) trials in the past have failed because it is too little, too late — the brain has been badly ravaged by Alzheimer’s,” Prof Martins said. “The new approach now is to do these (preventive treatment) trials much earlier by screening for amyloid.”
Prof Martin’s team from Macquarie University’s MQ Health will run the trials in Sydney and at Edith Cowan University in Perth, testing the eyes of about 200 men.
“It’s most certainly a game-changer, we are moving into the realm of early diagnosis and looking at prevention — that’s the major way forward and this would allow us to test different prevention approaches for Alzheimer’s,” Prof Martins said.
About 30 per cent of people over the age of 60 will have amyloid levels indicative of Alzheimer’s.
Prof Martins hopes the eye test will replace expensive brain scans in the future testing of the progressive brain disorder.
“It could be used so much more widely throughout the country and in more isolated regions, and the testing time would be 20 minutes or less and it’s relatively cheap,” he said.
Taren Point couple Diana and Garry Waters, both 71, have been involved in another trial of Prof Martins testing the effectiveness of curcumin.
Mrs Waters’ 91-year-old mother lost her battle with Alzheimer’s two years ago. “Going through that with her for four years was a very harrowing experience; it is a very tough time. It is tough on the family and on the person themselves,” she said.
“It is a terrible disease and unfortunately we just haven’t got anything at this stage that will stop it.”