Eye Test For Alzheimer's?

(Ivanhoe Newswire) ? The protein that forms plaques in the brain in Alzheimer's disease also accumulates in the eyes of people with Down syndrome.

The new findings show that the toxic protein, known as amyloid-ß, that causes Alzheimer's pathology in the brain also leads to distinctive cataracts in the eyes of people with Down syndrome. The discovery is leading the researchers to develop an innovative eye test for early detection of Alzheimer's pathology in both disorders.

The research was led by Lee E. Goldstein, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor at Boston University School of Medicine and the Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Center, and Juliet A. Moncaster, Ph.D., associate director of the Molecular Aging & Development Laboratory, also at Boston University.

"People with Down syndrome develop symptoms of Alzheimer's-type dementia often by the age of 30," senior corresponding author Lee E. Goldstein, was quoted as saying. "This is because they have an extra copy of a key Alzheimer's gene that leads to increased amyloid-ß accumulation in the brain. We discovered that this same protein starts to accumulate very early in the lens of the eye, even in children."

"The lens provides a window to the brain," co-lead author Juliet A. Moncaster was quoted as saying. "The lens can't clear protein deposits the way the brain does. Our findings show that the same amyloid-ß protein that aggregates in the brain also accumulates in the lens and leads to these unusual cataracts in Down syndrome."

"The results are striking," David G. Hunter, M.D., Ph.D., Ophthalmologist-in-Chief at Children's Hospital Boston was quoted as saying. "We have known that these cataracts are prevalent in people with Down syndrome and are sometimes seen at birth, but we never knew how they were related to the disorder—now we know," said Hunter. "These distinctive cataracts appear only in people with advanced Alzheimer's disease and much earlier in Down syndrome."

"We are developing an eye scanner to measure amyloid-ß in the lens," said Goldstein. "This approach may provide a way for early detection and monitoring of related pathology in the brain. Effective treatments for the brain disease in Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease are on the horizon, and early detection is the key for successful intervention," he said. "The path to effective treatment is what drives our research.