Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease: A Look Into Biomarkers

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INTRODUCTION Alzheimer's disease is a form of dementia that is nonreversible and develops over a period of years that affects mostly the elderly population. Alzheimer's disease can be mistaken for normal aging but personality and behavior changes sets Alzheimer's disease apart. Although Alzheimer's disease is considered an aged disease, it has been documented to affect people before the age of 65. This is termed early onset Alzheimer's disease which accounts for 5-10% of all Alzheimer's disease. Statistics conducted by the Alzheimer's Association estimates that 5.3 million people have Alzheimer's disease with an annual cost for medical care of 172 billion dollars [2]. The impact of Alzheimer’s disease on American society has caused Social Security to change its guidelines for "Compensation Allowance" for individuals affected by the Alzheimer's disease [2]. Early detection for Alzheimer's disease is needed to alleviate the social, economical and financial burden tasked to family members and caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients along with early treatment of AD patients. Current treatment for Alzheimer’s disease includes drug therapy such as cholinesterase inhibitors, a drug that supports communication among nerve cells which leads to memory improvement, and Memantine, another memory enhancing drug which regulates glutamate activity. The table below list a few drugs of the category above by generic and brand names. [17] Non drug treatment includes counseling of patients and family members of the possible mental changes and what can be done to ease the transition. Environmental changes and daily habits can be altered to reduce any obstacles associated with dementia and cognitive exercises can be performed by patients to he... ... middle of paper ... ...10650.jpg>. 19. Valeria Geylis, Vitaly Kourilov, Zeev Meiner, Inger Nennesmo, Nenad Bogdanovic, Michael Steinitz, Human monoclonal antibodies against amyloid-beta from healthy adults, Neurobiology of Aging, Volume 26, Issue 5, May 2005, Pages 597-606, ISSN 0197-4580, DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2004.06.008. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6T09-4DCN0R9-3/2/ab7a4837960d0afc8b844f274bdb2672) Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Anti-amyloid-beta antibodies; Epstein-Barr virus; Human monoclonal antibodies; Immunotherapy; Passive immunization 20. "Spinal Tap". eMedicineHealth. 5/26/2010 . 21. "ApoE Genotyping". Lab Tests Online. 5/26/2010 . 22. "APOE". Genetic Home Reference. 5/26/2010 .

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