UA researchers seek safe, early test for Alzheimer's disease

University of Arizona researchers are working to develop a safe and non-invasive method of detecting the disease in its early stages, using magnetic resonance imaging, better known as MRI. That, they say, ultimately could lead to developing more effective, earlier treatment.

The UA team is trying to detect amyloid plaques, which build up between nerve cells in the brains of people with Alzheimer's and which many researchers suspect are the cause of the disease.

Doctors can confirm through autopsies that the plaques exist in the brains of people with Alzheimer's, but the UA researchers hope to find a way of confirming the plaques are present in living patients. Because working with human brains is difficult, the UA team is conducting research with mice, trying to improve MRI technology to detect the plaques in hopes of one day applying that to humans.

Successfully measuring amyloid plaques in mice would be an important step toward creating new drugs and testing existing drugs and therapies that could treat people with Alzheimer's, said Theodore Trouard, a UA associate professor who heads the university's MRI research group.

"To be able to test for amyloid plaques in animals would be a major step forward in drug development," he said.

Trouard's team genetically modifies the rodents so they have hard amyloid plaques in their brains. Alzheimer's disease can take decades before symptoms appear in humans, but with mice, researchers can cause the disease to develop quickly and predictably. Then, members put a mouse in a special MRI machine and run tests using powerful magnetic fields, working to improve MRI technology and get better brain scans.

"We're developing technology to get MRI data faster," said Jessica Bernier, an undergraduate UA student and member of the research group.

Although the lab's MRI machine is smaller than one that would be used on humans — it's about the size of a washer or dryer — it is actually more powerful. In fact, it's about the most powerful MRI magnet in the state, Trouard said.

The UA team has roughly a dozen counterparts worldwide working to detect Alzheimer's disease with MRIs, as researchers try to determine exactly how dementia diseases such as Alzheimer's begin in human brains and how to detect and treat them earlier.

The research is providing hope for some of the families of the estimated 5 million Americans who have Alzheimer's.

"Every single type of research gives hope to the community," said Ana Miranda, a family-care consultant for the Southern Arizona Region of the National Alzheimer's Association. Miranda sees the effect of the disease every day through her work with caregivers and her experience as a caregiver herself, to a relative who has the disease.

"All the research that is focused on finding a cure is important," she said.

Miranda said that because everyone's brain is unique, if researchers can see the disease's effect on different people's brains, treatments will become more successful.

Now in its second year, the UA research group has been experiencing what members call "experimental errors" and is still awaiting a big breakthrough.

But experts said the research is critical.

"Trouard's work is extremely important," said Eric Reiman, scientific director of the Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium, the group that finances the UA research through state and federal funding.

"There are a promising number of plaque-busting medications and vaccines," he said.

If scientists are able to see the plaque in mice using MRI scans, it would allow them to see whether treatments are working, Reiman said.

Recently there has been more focus and success detecting Alzheimer's in humans using a medical imaging technique other than the MRI.

Positron emission tomography — PET scans — use nuclear technology for medical imaging and can be used to detect amyloid plaques and brain activity.

The potential of PET scans is exciting, Reiman said, but it would be advantageous for doctors to be able to detect amyloid plaques with a MRI because it costs less, is more widespread and doesn't involve radiation.

And some worry about the risks that PET scans might pose to Alzheimer's patients.

"PETs can cause the disease to progress faster," Miranda said.

Also, PET scans cannot yet be used on mice, which usually are the first test subjects for drugs, Reiman said.

Last year, Trouard's lab received $65,900 for the project, part of the millions spent on Alzheimer's research in the state every year.

Alzheimer's

• Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia.

• It is estimated that 5 million Americans are living with the disease.

• Symptoms of Alzheimer's include decline in mental functions, including memory, thought, language and behavior.

• Alzheimer's is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States.

in arizona

It's estimated that 97,000 Arizonans will have the disease in 2010.

In 2007, there were 174,663 unpaid Alzheimer's caregivers in Arizona — relatives, friends and neighbors who cared for people who suffered from the disease.

Source: The Alzheimer's Association