NU Scientists Advance Efforts in the Early Detection of Alzheimer’s

One minute. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that in just that small period of time, almost every minute, a person in the United States will develop one of the top-10 killers in America: Alzheimer’s.

2015 was the first year in which Alzheimer scientists were able to see some real, substantial success in clinical trials.

Bill Klein, in neurobiology and neurology at Northwestern, and his team have turned their focus away from what was once considered the cause of Alzheimer’s, plaques and tangles in the brain, and towards small neurotoxins that can sometimes be overlooked. These toxins, amyloid beta oligomers, are, according to these scientists, what causes the neuro damage that leads to dementia.

The toxins latch themselves on to synapses, the location where memory really begins, and they cause damage the biochemical processes associated with memory formation. This destruction occurs close to the onset of Alzheimer’s, so rapid identification of its occurrence could reverse the damage.

Klein along with other team members in his lab came up with a novel method of detecting these toxins through brain imaging. By pairing a magnetic nanostructure with an antibody that is tries to locate to find the amyloid beta toxins, researchers can identify the nanostructures to the toxins (in animals) through magnetic resonance images of the brain.

This study, emphasizing early detection, may enable scientists to detect Alzheimer’s before the worst damage is done as well as better understand the progression of the disease.

For more information, see: www.discover.northwestern.edu.

Photos by: Northwestern University