New treatment options 'may stop Alzheimer's'

It is estimated that over 35 million people will have Alzheimer's by next year and over 150 million by 2050, and healthcare experts are constantly attempting to uncover new treatment methods.

Now, it seems that specialists may be a step closer to defeating the condition, after experts in the US claimed that neuroimaging may lead to new therapies for the disease being developed.

A team at Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, have joined forces with international researchers on a new study.

The research will be published in a special issue of the journal Behavioural Neurology and feature 12 contributions from scientists who discuss imaging techniques that may contribute to early diagnosis and advancements in treatment for the condition.

Guest editor Dr Adam Fleisher, associate director of brain imaging at the Banner Alzheimer's Institute, told those with affordable health insurance that the theories are promising.

"To effectively target prevention therapies at the pre-clinical stage of the disease, we must develop biomarkers which accurately predict future dementia," he explained.

The specialist pointed to a variety of therapies which may be able to give experts a more accurate idea of patient risk factors and potentially lead to preventative remedies being formulated.

"Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) offer great promise as biomarkers for identifying underlying structural, functional and disease-specific pathology in Alzheimer's disease and related disease processes," Dr Fleisher said.

Over 700,000 people in the UK are currently suffering from Alzheimer's, which is expected to a rise to a million by 2025, but the researchers are hopeful of lowering this statistic.

In the current issue of the Behavioural Neurology journal, the experts tell medical health insurance customers that the latest developments in the field of MRI and PET, as well as original work, support the idea that neuroimaging will be of crucial importance in tackling the disease.

By Stephen Tate

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