Generales

Overcoming Alzheimer’s

The API Alzheimer’s prevention program led by Grupo de Neurociencias de Antioquia (GNA) is currently recruiting volunteers to participate in a 5-year study aimed at preventing early onset familial Alzheimer’s disease. The results of the study are expected in the year 2020.

Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by decline in cognitive function as well as behavioral disorders and has a high public health impact. It begins with memory loss and gradually affects cognitive and motor functions. In the region of Antioquia, Colombia, several families suffer from an early-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease.

Grupo de Neurociencias de Antioquia (GNA), a team of researchers dedicated to study neurodegenerative diseases, launched in late 2013 the API program, a project aimed at preventing Alzheimer’s disease in people under 60 years of age.  

The recruitment of volunteers has been hampered by the stringent requirements of the study that include being a member of a family carrying the mutation, not having developed the disease, not having memory loss, be aged between 30 and 60 years old, not having children during the study, and attend doctor’s visits on a biweekly basis.

The mutation is known as PS-1 E280A or “paisa mutation” as reference to the people native to the area, who are known in Colombia as paisas. “Genetic Alzheimer’s disease is the result of a mutation in the chromosome 14. People normally have two copies of this chromosome, however one of the chromosomes is damaged in those who have familial Alzheimer’s caused by the paisa mutation,” said Dr. Francisco Lopera, director of GNA.

Neurologist Francisco Lopera, who has studied Alzheimer’s for the last 30 years, is recognized as one of the nation’s most prominent scientists. His passion for studying the disease was born after his paternal grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Lopera’s research has been focused on prevention of the disease rather than treatment.

“Alzheimer’s is an incurable disease, more than 800 drugs have been tested in Alzheimer’s patients and they all failed. This is the reason why our current research focuses on preventing the disease rather than treatment,” Lopera said.  

The majority of Alzheimer's cases are late-onset, usually developing after age 65. Familial Alzheimer’s disease caused by the “paisa mutation” affects young adults. It begins silently ravaging the brain after the age of 28 but symptoms usually occur between 45-50 years of age.

Antioquia is home to the world’s largest population of Alzheimer’s sufferers with approximately 5000 mutation carriers. This condition has become an opportunity for researchers to find a way to fight Alzheimer’s.

GNA implemented several initiatives for the study of neurodegenerative diseases. These initiatives include a series of workshops designed to provide the families and caregivers of Alzheimer’s sufferers with practical information and support.

Another strategy is Neurobanco, a “brain bank” created in 1995 with brains from people who died from neurodegenerative diseases. “Neurobanco is dedicated to collecting, storing and processing tissues of patients with neurodegenerative diseases so that researchers can better understand these pathologies by studying donated tissues,” explained Carlos Villegas, coordinator of Neurobanco.  

This groundbreaking study makes part of five major research projects on Alzheimer’s conducted currently worldwide and is expected to have great benefits for victims of Alzheimer’s.