Age is the most important risk factor for Alzheimer’s. Over the years, protein deposits can form in the brain, which significantly impair memory. The result is changes in thinking, acting and perceiving. But what exactly happens in the brain in Alzheimer’s?
Alzheimer’s: the most common form of dementia
The term dementia comes from Latin and means “without spirit”. It describes a certain pattern of symptoms, including memory and orientation disorders, speech disorders, impaired thinking and judgment, and changes in personality.
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Experts use this term to describe over 50 different brain disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. It is the most common form of dementia: It causes around 60 percent of all dementias, as the Deutsche Alzheimer Gesellschaft e. V. reports.
Causes, symptoms, treatment: These forms of dementia exist in addition to Alzheimer’s
Dangerous protein deposits in the brain
Memory, perception, memory: All of this works in a healthy brain thanks to a complex network of well over 100 billion nerve cells. These are connected to each other via the synapses. This means that information and stimuli can be processed in continuous operation. Certain messenger substances, called neurotransmitters, help to transport the enormous wealth of information from nerve cell to nerve cell. So that they can be received in the different areas of the brain.
In the first step of dementia, the synapses are affected. The exchange of information between the brain cells is disturbed. As the disease progresses, the brain cells themselves eventually die. Two proteins that are deposited between and in the nerve cells in the brain are to blame: called beta-amyloid plaques and tau fibrils.
Deposits in the brain block information exchange between the cells
Amyloid is a naturally occurring protein in the body, as the Alzheimer Research Initiative e.V. explains in its guide “Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias”. The amyloid is easily split and processed in the healthy brain. In Alzheimer’s disease, on the other hand, the breakdown of the amyloid precursor protein changes. This would result in so-called beta-amyloid proteins, which the body can no longer break down. They clump together and as a result form insoluble deposits between the nerve cells, called amyloid plaques.
The second protein, the so-called tau protein, is located inside the nerve cells. It is responsible for the exchange of information and the stability of the cells. In Alzheimer’s disease, however, the tau protein is defective and forms fiber bundles, the so-called tau fibrils, in the nerve cells. The cells lack the necessary support and they disintegrate.
Alzheimer’s or Lewy Body Dementia? The symptoms of Alzheimer’s dementia are very similar to those of Lewy body dementia. The Lewy bodies are round cytoplasmic inclusion bodies of the nerve cells. These are typical for Parkinson’s or dementia patients. However, the symptoms of Lewy body dementia appear earlier and more violently than in Alzheimer’s. It is typical, for example, that those affected hallucinate, sway or fall. Unlike Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy-body dementia retains memory longer.
Destroyed nerve cells cannot be replaced
Both proteins, both the beta-amyloid plaques and the tau fibrils, thus interfere with communication in and between the nerve cells and ultimately lead to their death. Once nerve cells have been lost, they cannot be replaced. The mental faculties are gradually being lost.
According to the Alzheimer Research Initiative, the brain can lose more than 25 percent of its volume in severe forms of dementia. The first changes in the brain show up to 25 years before the first symptoms. According to experts, the average life expectancy from the onset of symptoms is about seven years.
Beta-amyloid is split off from a larger precursor protein (amyloid precursor protein). Further peptide fragments attach to the peptide, so that deposits are formed which impair the function of the nerve cells and ultimately destroy them. (Source: Image material: GettyImages, adaptation: t-online)
Alzheimer’s: These are the biggest risk factors
There are certain factors that increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. In addition to age and genetic factors, cardiovascular diseases also play a role, since the brain is supplied with oxygen and important nutrients via the bloodstream. Excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and being overweight also increase the risk of illness.
Diabetes is also related Alzheimer discussed. Research has shown that decreased body cell response to insulin is associated with poor memory performance. Depression, lack of sleep and severe head injuries are also considered possible risk factors.
Preventive measures: Five tips for effective memory training
Prevention: Healthy lifestyle prevents Alzheimer’s
Since Alzheimer’s is currently not curable and the mental breakdown can neither be stopped with medication nor with the help of memory training, so far only symptomatic therapies are available. Prevention is therefore of particular importance. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), a healthy lifestyle with no smoking, high physical activity and a healthy diet are particularly important. Overweight should be avoided and blood pressure and blood sugar levels checked regularly.
Prevent Alzheimer’s: Five prevention tips
Treatment and early detection: that’s what Alzheimer’s research does
Despite decades of research, no cure for Alzheimer’s has yet been found. Current medications can only alleviate the symptoms of the disease. In early 2018, the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer even stopped its research on the disease. Alzheimer’s research is very expensive and therefore not many companies invest to develop effective drugs. Some initially promising drugs have recently failed patient tests. So far, there has been no breakthrough.
On the other hand, there is a new, promising research approach in the early detection of Alzheimer’s. Scientists in Japan and Australia have come a step further in developing a blood test to predict the disease. The test, which can detect the protein beta-amyloid, which is involved in the development of Alzheimer’s, was more than 90 percent accurate in a study, according to the study, which was published in the renowned science magazine “Nature”.
Early detection of Alzheimer’s: Researchers are developing new blood test
Researchers who were not involved in the study, however, take some wind out of the findings. Although it is an important research approach, the results of the study would have to be verified by a larger number of participants.
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