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Earlier Alzheimer’ s detection
A new blood test promises to predict the disease in advance with much greater accuracy.
Better brains in 30 minutes
Just a half-hour of cardio can put your mind into a higher gear, study shows.
A blood test for the diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’ s disease has been developed.
The test, made by University of Melbourne researchers, has the potential to improve detections of early-onset Alzheimer’ s disease to 91 per cent accuracy.
Brain imaging can detect changes that occur two decades before signs of dementia show. The test could predict these changes and a person’ s risk of developing Alzheimer’ s earlier than now possible.
About 20 per cent of healthy participants with no memory complaints tested positive in an initial trial group of the blood test. The research team said the test must undergo further trials in a larger population across three to five years, as Alzheimer’ s is a progressive disease.
Dr Lesley Cheng, from the department of biochemistry, molecular and cell biology and the Bio21 Institute, said the research is critical for the development of therapeutic and preventative drugs for Alzheimer’ s disease.“ We can use it to identify patients of high risk and recruit them into clinical trials,” she said.
The method involves harvesting protective bubbles of genetic material called MicroRNA.“ What we can do is capture them from the blood stream and what we have done is profile them using nextgeneration sequencing.” Cheng said.“ We found that 16 of these microRNA are different [ when ] compared with healthy people.” The team also plans to develop a test for Parkinson’ s disease. Cheng said the research team has already had a lot of interest from patients who want to find out whether they are at risk of developing Alzheimer’ s disease.
“ The blood test would be a great tool as a pre-screen and we can determine which patients should be referred to more expensive testing such as the PET imaging,” she said. ■
As little as 30 minutes of aerobic exercise could be enough to spark positive changes in the brain, leading to improved memory and co-ordination of motor skills, researchers have said.
A study carried out at the University of Adelaide’ s Robinson Research Institute involved a small group of healthy subjects in their late 20s to early 30s using exercise bikes for a half-hour, with brain activity monitored both immediately after the activity and again 15 minutes later.
Lead researcher associate professor Michael Ridding said his team immediately saw positive changes in the subjects’ brain activity that was sustained for 15 minutes after the exercise had been completed.
Ridding said the findings built on previous work, which had demonstrated that regular exercise could improve brain activity and function and that even one isolated session could provide such benefits.
“ This exercise-related change in the brain may, in part, explain why physical activity has a positive effect on memory and higherlevel functions,” he said. " Plasticity in the brain is important for learning, memory and motor skill co-ordination. The more ' plastic ' the brain becomes, the more it ' s able to reorganise itself, modifying the number and strength of connections between nerve cells and different brain areas.”
Ridding said such improved understanding of brain plasticity was vital in efforts to expand therapeutic avenues for patients recovering from brain damage.
“ Although this was a small sample group, it helps us to better understand the overall picture of how exercise influences the brain,” he said.“ Further research will be required to see what the possible long-term benefits could be for patients as well as healthy people.” ■
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