Risk Factors

Is your gut trying to tell you something? The trillions of bacteria that live in our guts, called our microbiome, may impact the risk of memory and thinking problems. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin are studying a possible link between changes in the gut microbiome and Alzheimer’s disease.

Findings in two separate NIA-funded papers focus on different ways to develop noninvasive, less expensive ways to detect very early-stage Alzheimer’s disease in cognitively healthy people. The studies suggest that changes in vision and pupil responses may be effective biomarkers for Alzheimer’s in those at greater risk for dementia.

In the largest study to date of proteins related to Alzheimer’s disease, a team of researchers has identified disease-specific proteins and biological processes that could be developed into both new treatment targets and fluid biomarkers. The findings suggest that sets of proteins that regulate glucose metabolism, together with proteins related to a protective role of astrocytes and microglia — the brain’s support cells — are strongly associated with Alzheimer’s pathology and cognitive impairment.

In the late 1890s, a railroad worker in Frankfurt Germany noticed that his wife, Auguste Deter, was behaving oddly. Gradually her anxiety and mood changes gave way to memory loss, delusions and other signs of dementia. Committed to an institution in the care of Dr. Alois Alzheimer, Deter became the first person diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. A new study establishes that even her subtle, early shifts in behavior —  mild behavioral impairment — were scientifically linked to what was to come.

Targeting beta-amyloid protein before symptoms of cognitive decline or Alzheimer’s appear is the goal of one trial out of the National Institute on Aging (NIA), which recently released its first data set from its prevention trial.