New strategy to achieve an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

The project MOPEAD (Models Of Patients Engagement for Alzheimer's Disease) is a study of 33 months duration in which Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) participates. MOPEAD was created by the ACE Foundation (Alzheimer's Treatment and Research Centre) and its aim is to get a diagnosis of Alzheimer's early stages.

Dr. Rafael Simon, principal investigator of the Diabetes and Metabolism group of Vascular Biology and Metabolism of VHIR, has been a pioneer in demonstrating that neurodegeneration is an early event in diabetic retinopathy and propose its usefulness for the identification of patients with type 2 diabetes at risk of developing Alzheimer's.

Vall d'Hebron participates in the MOPEAD project evaluating activities for the involvement of patients, along with other hospitals across Europe as the Karolinska Institutet, the UMC Amsterdam and the Cologne University Hospital, among others. This project has two major long-term goals: improving population knowledge of the meaning of cognitive decline and, when this has been achieved, early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and provide strategies to improve the quality of life of those affected.

One of the main problems is that Alzheimer's diagnosis usually occurs when the disease is already relatively advanced. The reason is the lack of knowledge on behalf of the population of the symptoms of cognitive decline. There is therefore the need to clarify the meaning of cognitive decline and improve common knowledge to facilitate an early diagnosis of the disease.

The relationship with diabetes is based on the fact thatpatients with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of cognitive impairment and twice the risk of developing vascular dementia and Alzheimer's compared to people without diabetes. Therefore, Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes are age-related diseases that may share common pathogenic mechanisms and diabetes might accelerate the development of Alzheimer's in people who have a genetic predisposition.

Despite years of research, there is still no treatment or cure for Alzheimer's disease. It is crucial, therefore, to identify diabetic patients at risk of developing Alzheimer's and make recommendations that would help maintain cognitive function better for longer and open new perspectives for therapeutic interventions.