Anti-amyloid therapies can delay progression of Alzheimer’s disease

The rate of amyloid deposition in the brain of these individuals was compared with a younger group from the Australian Imaging, Biomarker, and Lifestyle (AIBL) study

New York: Severity of amyloid deposition in the brain -- not just age -- may be key to determining who will benefit from new anti-amyloid therapies to delay the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, a new study has found.

Clinicians and scientists from University of Pittsburgh in the US report that the accumulation of toxic amyloid beta clumps accelerates in old age but the baseline amyloid burden and the overall brain health going into this acceleration are more powerful predictors of who is most likely to progress to Alzheimer’s.

“Understanding the complexity of the increased amyloid accumulation, when individuals are cognitively normal, is critical for improved implementation of dementia treatments,” said Oscar Lopez, professor of neurology at Pitt and chief of cognitive and behavioural neurology at UPMC.

While people who are 80 and older have the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s-associated dementias, most studies that measured A-beta burden in the brain using imaging techniques have focused on younger populations. As such, the connection between A-beta and dementia in the oldest of the old have remained unclear, according to the paper published in the journal Neurology. Lopez and his colleagues are set to change that by examining the relationship between A-beta deposition and new cases of dementia in 94 elderly individuals who were cognitively unimpaired when the study was launched.

The rate of amyloid deposition in the brain of these individuals was compared with a younger group from the Australian Imaging, Biomarker, and Lifestyle (AIBL) study.