Your Mind’s MoPac: The Pathway to Early Alzheimer’s Diagnosis

An Alzheimer’s diagnosis can be debilitating. This chronic, neurodegenerative condition affects over 24 million people worldwide, and causes symptoms such as memory loss and difficulty in processing information. Through further understanding tau-protein-based biomarkers and developing care-taking methods for Alzheimer’s methods, future treatments are being developed.

There are treatments that reduce the severity of certain Alzheimer’s symptoms, but the disease currently lacks a cure. This gap in pharmaceutical development lies in the inherent complexity of the nervous system. Our brains are computers, cameras, and cockpits: no metaphor comes close to communicating the intricacy of the organ that created the devices it uses to describe itself.

But within our web of lobes and cortexes is one last metaphor: the intrastate highway system that maintains the brains’ ability to perform daily functions. It’s a pathway for the “HEB Truck” of essential nutrients and energy required by the brain to transmit signals to the body, and provides stability to the molecular “cars” that send messages between regions of the brain. Our mind’s MoPac is made up of small proteins called “tau” that arrange themselves into a network of tiny tubes, shuttling nutrients and molecules to the right “exits”.

However, Tau proteins can lose their shape due to a biochemical process called phosphorylation, which entails adding a phosphate group to the protein which prevents the efficient movement of nutrients and molecules through them. This can cause the brain’s infrastructure to break down, catalyzing the onset of dementia. We typically see the symptoms of Alzheimer’s later in a patient’s life — the average age of onset lies within the mid 60s. However, symptomatic expression of a neurodegenerative disease implies a high level of breakdown of proteins within the brain, making treatment difficult.

Despite this, tau proteins may still hold the key towards diagnosing Alzheimer’s more efficiently, generating new data for the development of more effective and sophisticated treatments. New scientific literature has shown evidence that phosphorylated (damaged) tau proteins can be detected in the blood, making them effective biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. The study also found that in some population groups, tau protein biomarkers can be detected in a patient’s mid 30s — decades before symptoms present. This gives medicine a chance to get ahead of the condition, preventing neurodegeneration instead of treating it.

Understanding the implications and efficacy of tau-protein-based biomarkers in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease is still in its infancy. However, this tool sets the groundwork for allowing scientists to discover causes of tau-phosphorylation to better understand the mechanisms behind dementia development. Thishas the potential to accelerate research in the search for a cure, and was made possible by the work of scientists, patients, caregivers, and activists that have worked to expand the scope of Alzheimer’s research for decades.

While work elucidating the mechanisms behind Alzheimer’s development is invaluable, another sector of dementia research focuses on how to best take care of those who are affected by the condition. Many of those who suffer from dementia lose their ability to live at home unassisted, and families may not have the resources to provide full time, at-home care. Nursing homes often fill this need, by providing 24-7 support to those suffering from dementia, ensuring their comfort, and easing families’ worries for their safety. However, this system is far from optimal-nursing home employees are often paid far less than fair compensation, and reports of neglect have led to international scrutiny. Additionally, from patients’ perspectives, this can lead to a loss of autonomy, as their lives follow a strict schedule that toes the line between comfortable and restrictive.

This tradeoff has prompted scientists and advocates to question what a fulfilling life with dementia could look like. An article published in The New Yorker details life within a “Dementia Village”— an Alzheimer’s care facility that resembles a neighborhood more closely than it does a hospital. The infrastructure of the village is designed to include looped streets without dead ends, making it easily navigable for those interfacing with neurodegenerative symptoms. Medical providers work with patients in their homes, reducing the burden of hospital visits. By prioritizing freedom and autonomy, this novel system has yielded improved patient happiness and quality of life.

Navigating an Alzheimer’s diagnosis is extremely challenging. However, the development of new tools, both biochemical and sociological, have done wonders for pushing the scope of research, ensuring that the mind’s MoPac can be further targeted to benefit patients’ quality of life.