weight up to the end of life related to a greater risk for Alzheimer -
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found an association between low weight and larger deposits of beta-amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's disease in the brains of normal cognitive older individuals. The association - reported in Journal of Alzheimer's disease -. Was seen particularly in individuals carrying the variant of the APOE4 gene, which is known to increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease
"Elevated cortical amyloid is considered the first stage of preclinical form Alzheimer's disease, so our results suggest that people who are underweight at the end of life may be more at risk for this disease, "says Gad Marshall, MD, of the MGH departments of Neurology and BWH , lead author of the report. "Finding this association with a strong risk marker for Alzheimer's disease reinforces that underweight as you age may not be a good thing when it comes to your brain health."
Although the concept of a preclinical version of Alzheimer's disease is theoretical and not yet used to guide clinical diagnosis or treatment, the current assumption involves three steps. People in step 1 are cognitively normal but high amyloid deposits; Step 2 adds evidence of neurodegeneration, such as high tau deposits or loss characteristic of certain tissues of the brain, without cognitive symptoms; and stage 3 adds cognitive changes which, while remaining within a normal range, indicate a decline for that person. The current study is part of the Harvard-based study MGH Aging Brain (HABS), designed to identify markers that predict who is likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and how long the symptoms are likely to develop.
This study explored the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and beta-amyloid levels in the brain of the first 280 participants to register for HABS, who were aged 62 to 0, cognitively normal and in good general health. data on initial registrations of participants included medical history; physical examinations; test for APOE4, the major genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's; and PET imaging with Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB), which can visualize amyloid plaques in the brain.
After adjusting for factors such as age, sex, education and APOE4 status, the researchers found that having a lower BMI was associated with better retention of GDP, which indicates larger amyloid deposits in the brain. The association was more pronounced among normal weight participants, who were the lowest BMI group in the study. The analysis focused on the APOE status revealed that the association between lower BMI and greater retention GDP was particularly important for people with the APOE4 gene variant that is associated with an increased risk of disease Alzheimer.
The researchers hope that future studies will explain the mechanism behind the association between amyloid levels increase and lower BMI. "A likely explanation for the association is that low BMI is an indicator of the fragility - a syndrome involving reduced weight, a slower movement and loss of strength that is known to be associated with Alzheimer's risk ' says Marshall, who is an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. "One way to get closer to determining any causal relationship will be following these individuals over time to see if their initial BMI predicts the appearance symptoms, what we do in HABS, and possibly examine whether the continued or even increased BMI in later life has an effect on the results. at this time, we are also studying if BMI is associated with other clinical markers and imaging of Alzheimer's disease. "
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