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Individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) are at twice the risk of others in their age group of progressing to Alzheimer’s disease. Although no conclusive test exists to predict who will develop Alzheimer’s, new research from the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas is attempting to identify a potential biomarker that could offer a more complete picture of who is most at risk.

The amyloid cascade hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) posits that sticky aggregations or plaques of amyloid-beta peptides accumulate over time in the brain, triggering a series of events that ultimately result in the full-blown neurodegenerative disorder. However, in a new study published in JAD, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System suggest the picture is not so clear-cut, reporting that early indicators or biomarkers of AD development are not fixed in a specific sequence.

In a new study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Dr Rebekah Ahmed and colleagues found that patients with dementia show a decrease in sexual relations with their partners. The study, led by NeuRA’s Prof John Hodges focused specifically on patients with frontotemporal dementia, the second most common cause of young-onset dementia (aged less than 65 years), which is typically associated with changes in behaviour and personality.

A team from the Vision Research Centre at Waterford Institute of Technology has discovered that patients with Alzheimer’s disease have significantly worse vision than others in their age group and are more likely to be seriously deficient in carotenoids, key nutrients in the eye. Providing an exciting basis for further research, the multidisciplinary Waterford study also shows that it is possible to improve the vision of patients with Alzheimer’s disease by providing supplements that include the macular pigment they have a deficiency in.