Dementia is usually thought of as a condition that affects older people. But sometimes it can begin much earlier—in a person’s 40s or 50s.
This kind of dementia, known as frontotemporal dementia (FTD), is often hard to recognize.
It is frequently mistaken for mental health problems like depression or schizophrenia, or even movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease.
Now, scientists at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have found new clues that may help detect FTD earlier and more accurately. Their study, supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), was published in the journal Nature Aging.
The researchers focused on inherited forms of FTD—cases where the disease runs in families. They studied spinal fluid taken from 116 people who had inherited FTD.
For comparison, they also looked at samples from 39 of their healthy relatives. Spinal fluid is a clear liquid found around the brain and spinal cord. It can give important information about what’s happening in the brain.
The team looked closely at over 4,000 proteins found in the spinal fluid of these individuals. Proteins are the body’s building blocks and messengers. Changes in the types or amounts of certain proteins can signal that something is going wrong in the brain.
What they found was striking. People with FTD showed changes in proteins linked to RNA regulation. RNA helps carry genetic information from DNA to make proteins, so any problems with RNA can affect how brain cells work. The researchers also found protein changes related to how brain cells connect and communicate with each other.
These protein changes may serve as early warning signs—biomarkers—that someone is developing FTD, even before clear symptoms appear. Right now, doctors do not have a simple or reliable test to diagnose FTD in living patients. Unlike Alzheimer’s disease, which can be diagnosed with brain scans and memory tests, FTD is harder to detect and confirm.
That’s why this research is so important. If doctors can use protein markers found in spinal fluid to diagnose FTD earlier, they can connect patients with the right treatments and support sooner. It also means patients could join clinical trials for new therapies earlier, when treatments may be more effective.
“FTD affects people in the prime of their lives, stripping them of their independence,” said Rowan Saloner, PhD, lead author of the study and a professor at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. “But there’s no definitive way to diagnose it in living patients.”
Dr. Saloner added that these newly discovered proteins may one day be used to guide patients into the right clinical trials and, hopefully, lead to precision treatments made specifically for their type of FTD.
In summary, this study shows promise in finding better ways to diagnose a serious brain disease that strikes people during midlife. By identifying protein changes in spinal fluid, doctors may soon have a new tool to detect FTD earlier. This could lead to faster care, better support, and more targeted treatments for patients and their families.
If you care about dementia, please read studies about Vitamin B9 deficiency linked to higher dementia risk, and flavonoid-rich foods could help prevent dementia.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies that cranberries could help boost memory, and how alcohol, coffee and tea intake influence cognitive decline.
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