L‘Alzheimer’s is the disease that has always been associated with old age, and in any case never before had a case presented on such a young patient. The news is of these hours and is making the rounds of the scientific world, as well as that of social networks. And it doesn’t look like a fake at all.
According to the doctors of the Beijing Capital Medical University in an article that appeared in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Diseasesit is a 19 year old Chinese boywhich for about two years had symptoms such as memory lossdifficulty of concentration, delayed reactions And reading difficulty. According to the article, the doctors who examined him found that the young man couldn’t even remember what he had eaten for dinner the day before. The condition of his mental function was so precarious that he even had to withdraw from the last year of high school. How is it possible? We asked Matteo Pardini, Professor Associate in Neurology at the University of Genoa and the Policlinico S.Martino and expert in cognitive disorders.
Alzheimer’s at 19: why does it happen?
«We are always talking about a degenerative dementia, therefore given by theaccumulation of pathological proteins in the brainwhich carry over time the neuron death. A form of juvenile Alzheimer’s like this probably is on a genetic basis, like many forms of frontotemporal dementia. However, they are two different entities both as a cause and as a treatment, but they share, at least in part, the diagnostic procedure», he explains Matteo Pardini, Professor Associate in Neurology at the University of Genoa and the Policlinico S.Martino and expert in cognitive disorders.
Exams and diagnosis
As reported by theAGI, brain tests revealed that his hypothalamus, an area of the brain that plays a role in cognition, it had shrunk. Clinical trials also showed damage to the temporal lobe And high levels of a protein called “tau”both hallmarks of Alzheimer’s as also reported by one article The sciences. The researchers who examined the patient conducted a series of cognitive tests in which the young man had to listen and repeat a series of words at variable times, arriving at the conclusion that his memory was significantly impaired.
Even the brain images they showed that his hippocampusresponsible for memory performance, was atrophied. Hippocampal atrophy is typically attributed to accumulation of tau protein that collects within neurons and accumulation of plaques in the brain caused by Alzheimer’s disease. Even the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) showed an abnormally high concentration of p-tau181 proteina well-known biomarker of Alzheimer’s dementia.
Early-onset Alzheimer’s is a new discovery
Scientists have pointed out how their findings put in challenge the common belief that Alzheimer’s disease is a disease exclusive to the elderly. The study proposed paying attention to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Exploring the mysteries of young people with Alzheimer’s disease could become one of the most challenging scientific questions of the future.
Alzheimer’s disease and genetic predisposition
“To rule out the possibility that the teenager was genetically predisposed to develop dementia, the scientists performed the whole genome sequencing, a laboratory procedure that reveals the full composition of a person’s DNA. Although they found evidence of plaques in the patient’s cerebrospinal fluid, the researchers did not identify the typical amyloid plaques and elevated tau levels in the brain. On Adnkronos it is added that “The team of Chinese researchers has announced that the patient has no family history of AD and no other cause of memory impairment such as genetic problems, infections or other diseases.
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