While June marks Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, a new study indicates that people living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) might also be at risk for a particular kind of heart failure.
Federica del Monte, M.D., Ph.D., of the Medical University of South Carolina and director of the Christie Heart and Brain Center and Human Heart Biobank, is investigating this link between Alzheimer’s and heart failure.
In her research, del Monte has found that proteins associated with Alzheimer’s, namely Amyloid beta and Tau, are present in the hearts of patients with heart failure.
Interestingly, these proteins also appear in the hearts of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s but not heart failure.
A Less Known Form of Heart Failure
Del Monte’s study, published in the European Heart Journal, sheds light on a less recognized type of heart failure.
This form of heart failure is characterized not by the heart’s inability to pump blood effectively, as is commonly known, but by a stiffening of the heart that prevents it from relaxing and filling with blood properly.
Symptoms of this condition can include fatigue, shortness of breath, swelling in the legs, and weight changes.
Potential Therapeutics and Future Studies
Del Monte’s study also offers promising insights into potential therapeutics for Alzheimer’s and this form of heart failure.
She has been exploring a novel antibody therapy that targets and removes toxic fragments of Tau protein, including “Big Tau”, identified in the heart.
In preclinical trials, mice treated with this therapy showed improved heart function and a reduction in “Big Tau” clusters in heart tissue.
Del Monte’s next step is to study this unique form of heart failure on a global scale to understand how common it is and who it affects.
This knowledge is crucial before the therapy can be tested in clinical trials.
Moreover, she hopes to develop a simple and affordable method to detect these markers in the hearts of patients at risk for or diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, which could indicate an increased risk for heart failure. The current detection methods involve costly PET scans.
The Importance of Awareness
Del Monte stresses the importance of raising awareness about this potential link between Alzheimer’s and heart failure.
She emphasizes that caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients should be prepared to face the possible complications of heart failure and understand the need to look for signs of AD beyond behavioral changes.
The ultimate goal is to provide comprehensive resources to better understand and manage Alzheimer’s disease.
If you care about Alzheimer’s, please read studies about Vitamin D deficiency linked to Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, and Oral cannabis extract may help reduce Alzheimer’s symptoms.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about Vitamin B9 deficiency linked to higher dementia risk, and results showing flavonoid-rich foods could improve survival in Parkinson’s disease.
The study was published in European Heart Journal.
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