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Local Researchers Seek Alzheimer’s Clues
By
Stephen Baetge
Staff writer
A
new research study at nearby UC Davis may lead to earlier detection
of Alzheimer’s disease and allow greater insight into how the
disease progresses in those suffering from its effects.
The innovative study attempts to determine whether closer examination of magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) scans can detect the onset of Alzheimer’s disease
before patients begin to show symptoms and to predict how quickly those struck
by the disease will lose their ability to think and reason.
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, and it affects approximately
5 million Americans. It destroys brain cells and causes a loss of memory, logical
reasoning and other mental skills. There is no cure for the disease, although
some studies have indicated that the effects of the disease can be mitigated.
Currently, there is no way to accurately detect early stage Alzheimer’s.
Physicians use a series of cognitive tests in an attempt to diagnose the disease.
Since some memory loss is a normal part of the aging process, it is difficult
to determine early on if a person has Alzheimer’s.
MRI imaging is a diagnostic tool that can detect atrophy of a portion of the
brain which is vital to learning and memory. But some atrophy — or shrinkage — of
the brain occurs as a result of normal aging.
Owen Carmichael, principal investigator for the UC Davis study, hopes to use
MRI to detect the distinct pattern of shrinkage that occurs in the brains of
Alzheimer’s patients.
“We want to ‘squeeze more juice’ out of MRIs that are used
to detect the presence of Alzheimer’s disease,” explained Carmichael,
an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and an adjunct professor
in the Department of Computer Science. “We also want to predict the likely
rate of decline.”
Carmichael and his colleagues will test a new, computational method of measuring
atrophy in various regions of the brain to see whether Alzheimer’s produces
distinct patterns of atrophy that can distinguish it from other patterns of impairment.
“We hope that by using this technique, we can provide a method for differentiating
people who will experience healthy cognitive aging from those who will experience
cognitive decline due to diseases like Alzheimer’s. For those who will
experience cognitive decline, we hope to predict its rate of progression,” Carmichael
said.
The UC Davis study uses a new computational MRI imaging method called Localized
Components and Analysis (LoCA), developed by Carmichael and colleagues Nina Amenta,
an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, and computer science
graduate student Dan Alcantara.
The researchers will use LoCA to analyze MRI scans of 800 adults who are part
of a large, publicly available database. The database contains more than 4,000
MRI scans of the brains of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, adults
with mild brain impairment and those without symptoms.
The analysis will examine whether the patterns of brain atrophy differ among
the three groups.
The analysis will also include a detailed examination of the MRI brain scans
of adults tested using experimental imaging tests that try to detect aspects
of Alzheimer’s pathology in the brain to determine whether LoCA can tell
the difference between those who appear to have the pathology and those that
do not.
Researchers will use the results of these comparisons to analyze additional MRI
scans to see whether the method can predict rates of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s.
“Once diagnosed, patients, physicians and families have no reliable method
for anticipating how fast cognitive functioning will decline,” Carmichael
said. “We hope that this method will change that.”
The UC Davis study is funded by a three-year, $200,000 grant from the Dana Foundation.
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