Patients with Alzheimer’s risk ‘have detectable changes in brain’

Individuals with a risk of developing Alzheimer's disease have been found to have detectable changes in their brain chemistry.

A study of 311 people in their 70s and 80s has shown how a build-up of amyloid-beta deposits, or plaques, in the brain can be registered before individuals suffer any symptoms of the disease, such as memory or language skills loss.

"This relationship between amyloid-beta deposits and these metabolic changes in the brain are evidence that some of these people may be in the earliest stages of the disease," commented study author Dr Kejal Kantarci of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

Meanwhile, research carried out by scientists at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine recently showed that a natural chemical found in grapes may offer some protection against the onset of Alzheimer's.

It found that grape seed polyphenols helped inhibit the production of a beta-amyloid peptide that has long been known to create neurotoxicity associated with the disease.