Currently, hopes of preventing the worst of the decline seen with Alzheimer’s disease lie in the early detection or identifying those who are predisposed to the disease so that some type of intervention can be attempted. Many studies have taken a look at older individuals and those who have already been diagnosed with the disease to determine which proteins could lead to a diagnosis, but how soon do these markers begin to show up in people who are developing cognitive issues? A study published in Neurology studied the levels of amyloid-beta in a group of healthy participants who ranged in age from 30-89. This data, combined with APOE epsilon 4 status and the results from cognitive tests, was used to determine a link between amyloid burden and cognition, attempting to identify the point at which the build-up of the protein starts to cause cognitive problems.
