British Study Suggests Retinal Mapping Can Predict Alzheimer’s Risk in Advance
Alzheimer’s, a type of dementia, is a silent disease. It arrives gradually and, when diagnosed, it may already be in an advanced state. Several fronts of study aim to find ways to identify symptoms as early as possible, thus aiming for more efficient treatment – it is worth remembering that there is still no cure, only palliative care. A British study, recently published, is yet another to add to these fronts, bringing promising data. Professor Mario Luiz Ribeiro Monteiro, from the Department of Ophthalmology at the USP Faculty of Medicine, talks about the study.
Vision begins in the eye, the image is formed on the retina and is transported by the optic nerve, passing through other structures until it reaches the brain. It was already known that Alzheimer’s could have an impact on vision from a neurological point of view. The professor exemplifies some of the effects: “Sensitivity to contrast, color perception, perception of movement or difficulty interpreting images”. What has now been discovered is that the disease affects not only the brain, but also the image pathway. Monteiro states that “it also affects this anterior portion”, with the “nervous retina almost like extensions of the brain”.
The benefits of this discovery form a new line of research, which could help identify dementia at an early stage. By analyzing the eye, not just the brain, it will be possible to “look for a finding that is specific to the disease and that could be an early indication of the disease”.
Ongoing studies
One of the specific components that can be looked for is the beta-amyloid protein, characteristic of Alzheimer’s cases. “It was also discovered that these beta-amyloid plaques also occur in the retina, so the attempt now is to find methods that identify these plaques [in the retina],” he says.
An ongoing study at the USP Faculty of Medicine, in parallel with other places in the world, is part of this promising front. Using retinal photos using the hyperspectral technique, in which a single photograph produces images with different wavelengths, we seek to evaluate indicators of dementia.
Monteiro comments: “The difference in this study is that patients are cataloged by whether they have changes in the PET Scan (positron emission tomography) or not, so patients were separated by those who have the beta-amyloid protein and those who do not” . The data is then submitted to a computer associated with artificial intelligence, whose function is, according to expectations, to trace identification patterns.