Research suggests specialized brain imaging can unveil mysteries of Alzheimer’s disease, other disorders

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Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, one of the major causes of dependency and disability in older adults. Though advances have been made in understanding the harrowing brain disease, diagnostic tests are currently limited and there are no treatments.

Now, a uOttawa Faculty of Medicine assistant professor and a team of collaborators have published research suggesting that a novel neuroimaging technique can potentially be employed in large-scale screenings for Alzheimer’s. It can also provide possible insights about the disease’s earliest stages, long before symptoms emerge.

The findings could help steer targeted drug design down the line and perhaps pave the way for a practical, less-invasive way to screen for Alzheimer’s, which can lead to such severe cognitive decline that sufferers can lose the ability to recognize loved ones or even communicate at the most basic level.

Published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Neuropsychopharmacology, the scientists’ study suggests that use of a high-resolution imaging method called “neuromelanin-sensitive MRI” could have promise for predicting the risk of symptoms or guiding future treatment.

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