Yesterday, we talked about the use of PET imaging to detect Alzheimer’s.   The process requires the injection of tracers into the brain to render the amyloids more easily detectable.  The real problem is that PET scans are not cheap.  (And, what would we do with this information, besides….)

Here’s the crux of the problem.  We know that it’s not atypical for  brain degeneration to begin two decades before Alzheimer’s symptoms manifest.  And, by then, the patients have lost a load of brain cells and have diminished neural connectivity.    Which means if even a little gain can be obtained by lifestyle changes or a drug regimen, we generally lack the early warning to garner the best benefits.  So, determine which patients who are on their way to developing Alzheimer’s may still be useful.  (Please, someone- develop a drug or therapy to turn this problem around!)

But, there may be one relatively simple indicator.   Drs. Keith Black and Maya Koronyo-Hamaoui (Cedars Sinai),  along with David Biggs and Steven Verdooner (Neurovision Imaging- which also includes Black and Koronyo-Hamaoui as its founders); Ernesto Barron (Doheny Eye Institute);  David Boyer (Retinal Vitreous Institute), Joel Pearlman (Retinal Consultants); William Au and Shawn Kile (Sutter Neuroscience); Adeel Ashfaq,  Sally Frautschy, and Gregory Cole (UCLA), Carol Miller and David Hinton (USC) have been working on a new idea.  They published their research results in the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Black and Koronyo-Hamaoui analyzed a bunch of cadavers- their brains and their eyes;  some manifested Alzheimer’s and some didn’t.  As a result of this investigation, their hypothesis garnered more substantiation- they found plaques in the far corner (the superior quadrant) of the eyes of those who manifested Alzheimer’s disease.  Interestingly,  that is not the portion of the eye that ophthalmologists normally examine, which is why it wasn’t discovered earlier.

To do this sort of study in living patients, the team had to get more creative- to use a marker that would render the amyloid plaques immediately recognizable.  So, they spiked chocolate pudding with curcumin (this is the chemical that provides turmeric its pronounced yellow tinge and is thought to possess a few health benefits) a few days (2 to 10) prior to an eye scan.  (Curcumin was known to fluoresce when it gets bound to the amyloid plaques that prevail in Alzheimer’s.  Oh, yes- the data demonstrate that the eye is completely free of the marker by day 29.)   The researchers also had to modify an ophthalmoscope so viewing the superior quadrant would be a simple task.

The data showed that patients with Alzheimer’s had more than four times the amount of fluorescence in the superior quadrant of their eyes, as those without the disease.  This could be “the” early marker.  One that might afford those lifestyle changes the ability to delay the onset of symptoms, providing 5 or 10 years of more functional lives than can be obtained now.

By the way, Neurovision just completed a $ 15 million round of financing.  And, the investors were some pretty well-known entities.  (And, it’s not like Theranos!)

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