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New Research Opens Door To Predicting Alzheimer’s Disease 10 Years Earlier

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times

Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease is critical for effective treatment. However, there are no reliable methods for such detection at present. The study, done by researchers from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet involves analyzing a type of glycan structure in the blood called bisected N-acetylglucosamine. This glycan structure is linked to the level of tau, a protein playing a key role in the development of severe dementia.

Glycans are sugar molecules found on the surface of proteins and are one of the major building blocks of life. Identifying bisected N-acetylglucosamine can give doctors a pathway toward spotting individuals with a higher risk of Alzheimer’s. In fact, the study could open the way for a simple screening procedure capable of predicting the onset of Alzheimer’s 10 years in advance.

At the onset of Alzheimer’s, neurons in the brain die. Ensuring that treatment begins early when not many neurons have died is crucial to reversing Alzheimer’s. In the study, researchers measured the blood glycan levels of participants. They found that individuals with matching levels of glycans and tau were more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s-type dementia.

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