4 Factors That Play Pivotal Roles in Alzheimer Disease Progression

February 12, 2020

At present there are no treatments to stop or delay underlying disease progression. Current prevalent therapies help to mask the symptoms, but they do not solve underlying causes. A fundamental premise for effective treatment is to make a diagnosis of Alzheimer disease at the earliest stage.

At present there are no treatments to stop and/or delay underlying disease progression. Current prevalent therapies help to mask the symptoms, but they do not solve the underlying root cause(s). A fundamental premise for effective treatment is to make a diagnosis of Alzheimer disease at the earliest stage.

1. Non-employed women have more rapid memory decline compared with women who continue to engage in their careers

2. Women appear to have a comparative verbal advantage that may enable them to compensate more effectively in the early stages of Alzheimer disease.

3. Women with mild cognitive impairment had a denser distribution and higher burden of tau, which suggest that female brains may have a stronger connection with abnormal tau protein.

4. Using genome sequencing, 11 genes have been found that are related to gender: immune gene (CD1E) in women and the mucolipin gene (MCOLN3) in men appear to be risk factors for AD.

For more on this topic, see Infectious burden and Alzheimer disease: is there a link?, on which this slideshow is based.