With the emergence of drugs targeting Alzheimer’s-related amyloid-beta plaques in the brain, there’s a growing need to differentiate between Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders causing memory loss and cognitive impairment.
A recent study reveals that the shrinkage of the hippocampus, a brain region crucial for memory, is associated with cognitive decline, even in individuals without amyloid plaques.
Dr. Bernard J. Hanseeuw, the study’s lead author from Harvard Medical School, notes that these findings suggest that other neurodegenerative diseases beyond Alzheimer’s contribute to cognitive decline.
Measuring hippocampus volume could help identify and assess these factors that are currently challenging to quantify. This knowledge may improve predictions of drug response and individuals’ cognitive decline trajectories.
The study involved 128 participants with an average age of 72 who initially had no memory or thinking issues.
Over the study’s seven-year follow-up period, participants underwent various brain scans to assess amyloid plaques, tau tangles (another Alzheimer’s biomarker), and hippocampus volume. They also received annual cognitive assessments.
The results indicated that a faster hippocampus shrinkage correlated with accelerated cognitive decline. Notably, when considering all biomarkers, hippocampus atrophy independently predicted cognitive decline, accounting for 10% of the observed differences.
The findings underscore the complexity of dementia, suggesting that various forms of dementia beyond Alzheimer’s could contribute to hippocampus shrinkage and cognitive decline.
However, the study’s limitation is that it primarily involved highly educated white participants, potentially limiting its generalizability.
This research, supported by organizations such as the National Institutes of Health and the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research, highlights the importance of considering multiple factors when evaluating cognitive decline, ultimately leading to more accurate diagnoses and treatment strategies.
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The research findings can be found in Neurology.
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