Researchers in Oslo have found that structural changes in the brain occur long before the formation of amyloid plaques, previously considered the earliest marker of Alzheimer's disease, reports infohub.kz.
The study, conducted by specialists at the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo and published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, showed that amyloid positron emission tomography (PET), considered the gold standard for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease, is not sensitive enough. The scientists detected signs of the disease at least seven years before amyloid plaques become visible on PET scans.
In the study, the researchers followed cognitively healthy elderly individuals using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for nearly two decades. Comparing scans of those who later developed plaques with data from participants without them, they recorded early changes in brain structure.
As lead researcher James Michael Roe noted, the signal found is the earliest ever recorded. Professor Anders Martin Fjell emphasized that the discovered processes indicate either damage occurring before plaque accumulation or the presence of other mechanisms of pathology development. This points to the need for developing drugs targeting other targets besides amyloids.