Alzheimer's disease could possibly be already "at work" in the human brain even years prior the exact symptoms of the disease manifested, a study published in the journal Alzheimer's and Dementia revealed.

The best known genetic variant associated to the neurodegenerative illness may have been encouraging plaque to deposit in the brain long before any measurable symptoms of the disease can be detected on tests, Indiana University researchers showed as per the Business Standard.

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Individuals with "significant memory concerns" characterized as older adults who reported to have mentally slipped in recent years or months but had normal standard cognition and memory test results, were the main focus of the research. People who were under the said category were also labelled as the "subjective cognitive decline" group by the Alzheimer's investigators.

Led by Andrew J. Saykin, Psy.D., and Shannon L. Risacher, Ph.D., the research group studied data from almost 600 ADNI participants and correlated those with the gen in question, APOE e4, variant to those with gene of other forms.

Under the "significant memory concerns" group, the team discovered proof of Alzheimer's-like pathologies from a number of biomarkers among the APOE e4 carriers, among which are:

1. Elevated levels of amyloid plaque clusters of protein fragments usually found in an Alzheimer's patient's brain tissue.

2. Decreased levels of cerebrospinal fluid protein precursor to the plaques indicating that such protein was being utilized for plaque creation in the brain.

3. Elevated levels of tau - another protein linked with Alzheimer's disease - in the cerebrospinal fluid.

Despite the recent discovery however, no proof of brain structure disintegration nor reduced levels of glucose metabolism that are linked to advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease were found.

Alzheimer's reportedly accounts for 60 to 70 percent of dementia that affects millions of people worldwide.

There are currently no treatment to stop or reverse the disease's progression, but the NorthShore Center for Brain Health believe that getting enough sleep ( 7 or more hours nightly ), proper diet, healthy daily activities, education and social engagement play a role in the prevention of the disease, MD Specialties reported.

A number of studies have been dedicated to fully understand the complexity of Alzheimer's disease. As a matter of fact, philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has just awarded $7 million in grants to five research teams who are working on new ways of battling the degenerative brain disease, according to Forbes.

TagsAlzheimer’s disease, Memory, brain, Paul Allen