Scientists Discover Early Alzheimer's Warning Sign Hiding in Routine Brain Scans

janrinok writes:

Scientists Discover Early Alzheimer's Warning Sign Hiding in Routine Brain Scans

Researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found that the brain's natural "drains", which help remove toxic waste from the organ, are more likely to become blocked in people who show early signs of Alzheimer's disease.

Their findings indicate that these blockages, known as "enlarged perivascular spaces", could serve as an important early signal of Alzheimer's, one of the most common forms of dementia.

"Since these brain anomalies can be visually identified on routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans performed to evaluate cognitive decline, identifying them could complement existing methods to detect Alzheimer's earlier, without having to do and pay for additional tests," said Associate Professor Nagaendran Kandiah from NTU's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) who led the study.

Justin Ong, a fifth-year LKCMedicine student and first author of the study, noted that spotting Alzheimer's at an early stage allows doctors to intervene sooner and potentially slow the progression of symptoms such as memory loss, reduced processing speed, and mood changes. The study was carried out as part of LKCMedicine's Scholarly Project module in the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery program.

This research stands out because it is one of the few global studies that focus on Asian populations, rather than primarily Caucasian participants. The team examined nearly 1,000 people in Singapore from various ethnic groups, comparing individuals with no cognitive concerns to those showing mild difficulties in thinking.

These Asian-focused studies are important because past work suggests that dementia-related conditions vary across ethnicities.

"For example, among Caucasians with dementia, past studies show that the prevalence of a major risk gene, apolipoprotein E4, linked to Alzheimer's is around 50 to 60 per cent. But among Singapore dementia patients, it is less than 20 per cent," said Assoc Prof Kandiah, who is also Director of the Dementia Research Centre (Singapore)in LKCMedicine. So, findings in studies on Caucasian patients might not be observed in Asians and vice versa.

The brain's blood vessels are surrounded by small channels called perivascular spaces. These serve as pathways for clearing harmful waste such as beta amyloid and tau proteins, both of which appear in unusually high amounts in people with Alzheimer's.

When this drainage system becomes inefficient, the spaces expand and form enlarged perivascular spaces that are detectable on MRI scans. However, previous studies had not fully clarified whether this phenomenon was directly associated with dementia or specifically with Alzheimer's disease.

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