2023-08-27 20:10:49
The greatest desire of any person is to age with dignity in order to enjoy old age. There are those who achieve it, although it is also true that at an older age the risk of developing multiple diseases also increases. Within the list, dementia is one of the most common and there are also several types, but one of recent discoveries is Hippocampal Sclerosis of Aging (LATE).
Mexico is becoming a country with a greater number of older people. It is expected that by the year 2050, the proportion of children under 15 years of age in the total population will decrease from 30.0% to 17.4%. In this way, the increase in the population of older adults would increase with the use of health services for the care of diseases typical of aging such as dementia.
What does it consist of?
Known as LATE, it is a very common form of dementia that affects approximately 40% of elderly patients. researchers of the Hospital Houston Methodist have unraveled various patterns of this pathology in the brains of geriatric patients. In these cases there are different clinical, pathological and genetic associations.
Researchers have delineated the pattern of brain expression of a protein called TDP-43 linked to various forms of dementia. Previously, studies had found that a disease form of this protein was expressed in the brain for two less common neurological disorders: Lou Gehrig’s disease (or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and frontotemporal lobe degeneration (FTLD).
Subsequently, TDP-43 disease was recognized as an important contributor to common forms of dementia in aging humans.
“By examining which cell groups and structures in the amygdala region are affected early in dementia, we can begin to understand why LATE disease occurs and how it progresses. In addition, studies like this can help refine the way we classify the different types of dementia so that we can give the most accurate diagnosis to the patient’s family,” says Matt Cykowski, MD, assistant professor of genomic medicine and pathology.
Although the disease Alzheimer While it remains the most common form of dementia in the elderly population, other conditions have long been known to cause dementia, including LATE and Lewy body dementia.
However, the links between Alzheimer’s disease and LATE do not end there. At autopsy, some elderly patients with clinically diagnosed “Alzheimer’s disease” during their lifetime may have LATE disease.
It is not possible to accurately estimate the true incidence of these “mimic Alzheimer’s” cases in the elderly population given the lack of biomarkers for LATE disease in living patients.
As the next step in their research, the team plans to search for proteins other than TDP-43 that might be associated with different forms of LATE. Another avenue of research is also to look at a region of the brain called the amygdala, much more closely.
Since the structure is made up of different subtypes of neurons, Dr. Cykowski hypothesizes that there are specific groups of neurons that are more susceptible to developing the TDP-43 disease seen in LATE. This is likely to involve more specialized studies in the future.
Also:
Free online courses offered by the UNAM to take care of health: From diabetes to dementia
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