great step to figuring how we can prevent / cure these protein changes
OK, but I'd rather prevent/cure the dementia.
Is no one going to tell him? Should we?
Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
21–30 of 51 posts
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#22It'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.
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Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#23Now 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.
That is true for some diseases but not all. I don't think we know how to prevent dementia. But identifying biomarkers is useful, at the very least for selecting people for enrollment in future trials.
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Finding a novel correlate that precedes the other observed effects of the disease in question is progress in prevention.
people thought for years that amyloid plaques were driving the disease only to be proven utterly wrong you might want to have a bit of humility when dealing with complex systems
I agree with you. I think being proven utterly wrong is a huge accomplishment nonetheless. We shouldn’t be sure of ourselves, but we should treasure any progress even if it’s in the form of negating causes rather than isolating them.
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#25GFAP as dementia biomarker isn't a new discovery. Here's a 2023 meta-analysis that used papers as old as 2020. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10177296/
> Proteins (for example Glial Fibrillary acidic protein, GFAP) had previously been identified as potential biomarkers for dementia in smaller studies, but this new research was much larger and conducted over several years.
The article (University press release) does mention this... but seeing a known suspect in the biomarker list would lend some confidence to any novel biomarkers found. So, it's good to see multiple studies having similar hits.
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Finding a novel correlate that precedes the other observed effects of the disease in question is progress in prevention.
people thought for years that amyloid plaques were driving the disease only to be proven utterly wrong you might want to have a bit of humility when dealing with complex systems
‘Utterly wrong’ is a harsh conclusion. You may want a touch of humility yourself. Amyloid plaques are the defining feature of AD and assuredly provide vital clues about the biomolecular processes driving AD across the brain. There is renewed interest in the what causative role amyloid plays [1]. Whether plaques are causative or a byproduct is an open question, especially when we consider the heterogeneity in neurodegenerative diseases. AD itself probably is an umbrella term capturing several subtypes (such as CAA). Whatever role amyloid plays, the OP is correct: correlates open interesting research avenues and this is an interesting paper if for no other reason we have few predictors of who will develop AD.
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#27GFAP as dementia biomarker isn't a new discovery. Here's a 2023 meta-analysis that used papers as old as 2020. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10177296/
They mention this in the article, and of course, the scientific method means we _want_ to have more than one suggestive meta-analysis before we declare any kind of "discovery" at all.
> Proteins (for example Glial Fibrillary acidic protein, GFAP) had previously been identified as potential biomarkers for dementia in smaller studies, but this new research was much larger and conducted over several years.
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Finding a novel correlate that precedes the other observed effects of the disease in question is progress in prevention.
people thought for years that amyloid plaques were driving the disease only to be proven utterly wrong you might want to have a bit of humility when dealing with complex systems
Can you please not post in the flamewar style? You've broken the site guidelines here and we've already had to ask you not to do that.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Edit: actually, since your recent comments look like this, I've banned the account:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39341879
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39341602
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39341585
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39341578
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39308894
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39281272
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39249635
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39238628
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39237978
That's completely unacceptable on HN. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#29I wonder what kinds of useful stuff dogs can smell already… but they can’t say anything!
Re: Protein biomarkers predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis in new study
#30Now is there something that can be done early or is it 15 extra years of suffering
Probably diet and exercise. Would be interesting to see an interventional study based on this.