Dementia prognosis
The presence of nonspecific biomarkers of inflammation in the blood at the age of 40-50 years is associated with a decrease in the number of brain cells in old age. At the same time, those areas whose lesion is most characteristic of Alzheimer's disease suffer.
A group of researchers led by Keenan Walker from the University of Baltimore confirmed the relationship between the presence of nonspecific inflammatory factors in the blood in middle age and the development of neurodegenerative diseases in old age.
The study involved 1,633 clinically healthy people, the average age at the start of the study was 53 years. Blood samples were taken from them, in which the levels of five biomarkers of inflammation, including the number of leukocytes, were determined. After 24 years, the participants were tested for memory, and then they underwent a brain scan to determine the volume of nerve tissue in certain parts of the brain.
The results turned out to be natural. Participants in whose blood an increase in the level of three or more markers of inflammation was detected had a 5% decrease in the volume of nervous tissue in the hippocampus and other brain structures associated with Alzheimer's disease compared to participants with "calm" blood.
The results of memory testing confirmed the previously put forward thesis: in a group of people with three or more inflammatory factors in the blood, memorization is worse: from the presented list of 10 words, they remembered an average of 5, and subjects with fewer biomarkers – 5.5.
The study is not without drawbacks, the main one of which is that blood sampling and analysis were performed only once, which does not allow an adequate assessment of the presence of chronic inflammation. Nevertheless, it demonstrates quite clearly: the death of brain cells begins long before it manifests itself clinically, and the first "alarm bell" can be considered the detection of biomarkers of nonspecific inflammation in the blood.
Article by Keenan A. Walker et al. Midlife systemic inflammatory markers are associated with late-life brain volume published in the journal Neurology.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru according to the press release of the American Academy of Neurology: Inflammation in Middle Age May Be Tied to Brain Shrinkage Decades Later