Dementia

WHAT IS DEMENTIA?

Dementia is not a single disease but rather a term to describe a number of illnesses that predominantly affect people over the age of 65.  Alzheimer’s disease, which initially affects the areas in the temporal lobe that control memory, accounts for 50 to 70 per cent of all dementia cases. 

Dementia is a progressive brain disorder that affects a person’s ability to function normally. The condition involves the degeneration of brain cells, with common symptoms including memory loss (particularly recent memory), confusion, personality change, withdrawal and a loss of ability to do everyday tasks.

There are four key stages in dementia.  The first stage involves being unable to remember everyday tasks while in the second phase patients are more likely to accept the condition.  By the third phase people may become fixated on earlier memories and in the final stage, patients tend to withdraw completely. 

With an ageing population in Australia, the population at-risk of dementia is predicted to rise to almost 1 million people by 2050.

QBI RESEARCH
In 1992, QBI Director Professor Perry Bartlett led a team that discovered a mechanism that may stimulate the production of new nerve cells in the adult brain (also called neurogenesis).  This groundbreaking research offers the hope that normal brain function – such as learning and memory – can one day be enhanced. 

Frustratingly, only about half of the cells produced during neurogenesis appear to integrate into the brain by connecting with the neural network.  As such, the brain’s apparent ability to self-repair continues to be a focus of extensive scientific investigations. 

In 2008, Dr Elizabeth Coulson built on Professor Bartlett’s research, when she discovered how to reduce neuronal loss in a brain affected by Alzheimer’s disease.  She established that blocking the molecule known as the p75 neurotrophin receptor prevented the brain cell degeneration induced by the neuro-toxin amyloid beta, which causes nerve cell degeneration in the forebrain. 

“While this finding probably won’t cure this multifaceted disease, it hopefully will be a significant improvement on, and work together with, what is currently available for Alzheimer’s disease patients,” Dr Coulson said. 

Further, the neuroscientist is part of an elite international collaboration dedicated to finding a way to image the brain cell loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease.  This could assist with the earlier diagnosis of dementia, more accurate treatments and an improved method for tracking the condition’s progression.
 

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