Alzheimer’s disease and some researchable points

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative disorder that affects the brain and causes dementia, especially late in life. “According to the 2010 World Alzheimer report, there are an estimated 35.6 million people worldwide living with dementia at a total cost of over US$600 billion in 2010, and the incidence of AD throughout the world is expected to double in the next 20 years,” Researchers reported.

There is no known treatment to slow down the progression of this disease.

Finding the biomarkers for the progress of the disease is one of the potential targets of researchers. Biomarkers were a kind of “biological tools that ‘mark’ the presence of pathology, for the early diagnosis of AD and for measuring clinical drug trial outcomes.”

Development of disease model can help in our progress towards the establishment of biomarkers and treatment of the disease. Some models have been hypothesized but a model that practically and fully describes the disease has to be established. Some of the models have been showed in the graph below:

LONI Image Data Archive (IDA) can help in research of Alzheimer’s disease. Coalition Against Major Disease (CAMD) can also help researchers in Alzheimer’s disease. You can get access these databases by visiting and contacting them.

Reference:

Michael W. Weiner, Dallas P. Veitch, Paul S. Aisen, Laurel A. Beckett, et al. (2012). The Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative: A review of papers published since its inception Alzheimers Dement. DOI: 10.1016/j.jalz.2011.09.172