Alzheimer’s, A progressive brain disorder that gradually destroys mental functions such as memory and learning, has been a popular topic of research as of late.

Last month we talked about a report indicating “Alzheimer’s Memory Loss Faster Among Well-Educated” and this week we have found a report mentioning that Alzheimer’s may be linked maternally.

Using a technique that attached a chemical tracer to glucose, researchers found that out of 49 subjects, 16 had a mother with the disease and 8 had a father with Alzheimer’s.

The study was conducted by New York University School of Medicine where they had 49 individuals without Alzheimer’s go through a series of neuropsychological and clinical tests, as well as scans of their brain.

It turns out that the participants with a a parent having Alzheimer’s had the largest glucose drop in several areas of the brain, including the sections for memory storage and retrieval. Additionally, participants without a parent with Alzheimer’s were found to have no reductions in brain energy metabolism.

“This is a preliminary study and the results have to be replicated,” says Dr. Mosconi. “What we need even more is to follow subjects over time until they develop clinical symptoms, and we really need to assess whether the metabolic reductions predict and correlate with disease progression,” she says.

“Energy metabolism hasn’t been a major focus of research in Alzheimer’s, so we hope that this study will stimulate further discussion on brain activity and disease risk, which could also be important for planning targeted therapeutic interventions,” says Dr. Mosconi.

“This is an intriguing finding,” says Mony de Leon, Ed.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Center for Brain Health at NYU School of Medicine. “It points to the need for more research to investigate the mechanisms of maternal transmission of this observed glucose metabolism deficit as well as to learn of any direct or indirect relationship to Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. de Leon.

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For more information and resources please visit Agis’s Alzheimer’s Disease Page.

Filed under: Alzheimer's, Research