The retina can function as a kind of brain mirror and become a key element in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and other diseases related to dementia and the nervous system, according to the conclusions of a group of Portuguese researchers.
The study has been carried out by a multidisciplinary team of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra – Dean in Portugal – that started from the hypothesis The retina, considered as an extension of the brain, can show its evolution in the case of patients with Alzheimer’s.
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The research, explains the University of Coimbra, was developed in a group of mice with three human genes with mutations associated with this neurodegenerative disease.
The ultimate goal has been to provide a new technique that facilitates the early diagnosis of alzheimer, a medical condition that, to date, has no cure and whose progress can only be stopped with drugs and therapeutic techniques.
Between the ages of four and sixteen, the Portuguese scientists made a series of comparisons between the evolution of the brain and the retina.
The final results show that in these transgenic mice there are structural and functional alterations in the retina and in the visual cortex.
“These neuronal alterations can be used as additional biomarkers in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease,” according to the coordinator of the scientific study, Francisco Ambrósio.
In addition, the work, published in the neuroscience journal “Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy”, confirms “the possibility of using the eye as an additional tool for the diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of Alzheimer’s”, says Ambrósio in the university statement.
In general, the researchers, through the test in mice, found that the retina “mimics” what happens in the brain of a Alzheimer’s patient.
“If in the brain there is a reduction in the volume of the structure of the hippocampus (brain region associated with memory) and the visual cortex, in the retina there is also a reduction in its thickness,” they argue.
In all the phases analyzed (4, 8, 12 and 16 months of age of the mouse) a reduction in the thickness of the internal areas of the retina coupled to the reduction in the volume of the hippocampus and the visual cortex was confirmed.
Portuguese scientists too They worked with Alzheimer’s patients and confirmed the association between brain and retinal disorders.
Even so, they understand that to obtain more scientific evidence it would be necessary to apply the tests to a greater number of patients.
The study coordinator believes that, following this work, “neurologists should weigh the prescription of the retina tests to evaluate the layers of thickness of the retina”During early diagnostic tests of Alzheimer’s.
In addition, this method could also be applied in the diagnosis of other diseases that attack the nervous system, such as Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (THE A).
EFE
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