Everyone should undergo a mid-life ‘brain MOT’ in the future to spot those most at risk of developing dementia in their later years, says one of Britain’s top researchers.
They should be offered the check-ups regularly from the age of 40, says Professor Bart De Strooper, in just the same way as we are currently invited for an ‘NHS Health Check’, which focuses on cardiovascular fitness.
A brain test would include a combination of a mental exam and a blood test. It will look for biomarkers which indicate early signs of brain damage and genetic predisposition to dementia.
This would allow doctors to identify people who are at highest risk for developing dementia earlier than the majority of damage is done, Professor De Strooper explained to The Mail Sunday.
The doctor suggested they might be treated with new therapies, as early treatment is the best way to avoid the development and full-blown dementia.
Everyone should undergo a mid-life ‘brain MOT’ in the future to spot those most at risk of developing dementia in their later years, says one of Britain’s top researchers
Almost 900,000 people have dementia in the UK today – a number projected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040. A quarter of NHS hospital beds are occupied by people with dementia, and the overall cost to the economy is estimated at £35 billion a year.
Director of UK Dementia Research Institute Prof De Strooper said technology was much more advanced than many people believed.
It could happen in just three years if enough funds are available, he said.
But he said a deep-seated ‘taboo’ about dementia, including the ‘fatalistic’ belief that it was an inevitable part of the ageing process, was holding back the flow of cash and stymying life-changing research.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, he said: ‘Dementia is something which is too much of a taboo in society. It’s one of the big missions of our Institute to start making people think about it in a much more rational way. That will help people to become more hopeful.’
There was ‘no doubt’ taboo and pessimism impacted funding, he said, with even some scientists thinking it was too hard a nut to crack.
The Institute’s biggest backer is the taxpayer-funded Medical Research Council, while it receives significant support from charities including Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK.
Prof De Strooper is a world-leading molecular biologist who came to Britain from Belgium in 2016 to head up the Institute, which was set up as part of David Cameron’s push to accelerate dementia research.
The academic said the Institute had achieved some ‘amazing’ breakthroughs, but admitted he had been left ‘a bit disappointed’ at the funding situation in recent years.
According to him, dementia researchers often had a harder time compared to their colleagues in research on cancer.
While there have been some 74,000 trials of potential cancer medicines since 2000, there have been just 2,400 for Alzheimer’s disease, which causes two-thirds of dementia cases.
And while 512 cancer drugs have been approved by US regulators in that timeframe, just six have been green-lighted for Alzheimer’s.
Prof De Strooper said this meant when a cancer drug failed it was not such a big deal – but when an Alzheimer’s drug hit the buffers it was major news, casting a pall over research.
Some pharmaceutical companies have stopped conducting research in this area due to a lack of results, though some are now trying again.
A new survey of 200 UK DRI scientist found that 90% are optimistic about new treatment options in the coming decade. Meanwhile, 72% believe the rate of progress is rising. It is not surprising that 100% believe additional funding to support further discoveries.
In June US regulators controversially approved a new drug, aducanumab, for treatment of Alzheimer’s – despite serious questions over its effectiveness.
Professor De Strooper stated that there are good reasons to believe it will work better than the initial trials results. He also believed that approval could be used as a catalyst to invest in drug trials which can prove extremely costly.
The drugs may then be utilized to quickly treat patients who have early symptoms of neurological disorders that can lead to dementia. These include Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, Parkinson’s and Motor Neurone Disease.