Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
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Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#2[deleted]
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#3great step to figuring how we can prevent / cure these protein changes
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#4https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-023-00565-0
^ direct link to the paper.
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#5Now is there something that can be done early or is it 15 extra years of suffering
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#6great step to figuring how we can prevent / cure these protein changes
OK, but I'd rather prevent/cure the dementia.
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#7https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-023-00565-0 ^ direct link to the paper.
"... plasma proteins, GFAP, NEFL, GDF15 and LTBP2 consistently associated most with incident all-cause dementia (ACD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD), and ranked high in protein importance ordering."
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#8It's always encouraging to see progress in disease prevention. As a young person, I'm looking forward to what the medical field will be like when I'm 70.
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#9Now is there something that can be done early or is it 15 extra years of suffering
From what I understand, the medicine available is fairly successful at staving off further disease progression but the normal late stage diagnosis often means it’s far too late. This might make outcomes significantly better if it works as well as reported.
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#10One caveat is that this is necessarily a retrospective study. The authors looked at historical data from the UK Biobank, ran a regression, and found these genes. So, it’s not really clear if these genes are actually causing dementia, or if they’re just related to a common cause, or (most likely) tied together through some very complicated web of biological mechanisms.
That said, they’re interesting genes. GFAP is expressed in astrocytes, which are glial cells. These perform a lot of tasks in the brain, but they seem important in protecting neurons from toxic stresses. So, this may give us some additional insight into the role of glial cells like astrocytes in dementia.