Articles that highlight DIAN/DIAN-TU research and participants that are not produced by WashU
Scientists are trying to find out why one man has been able to stave off Alzheimer’s for nearly 25 years despite having a rare genetic mutation that doctors say essentially guaranteed he developed the disease by his late 40s or early 50s.
Jake Heinrichs is a Broadway theater electrician from Brooklyn who carries one of the early-onset genes. The disease claimed his grandmother, uncle, father and brother, all within the same age range. “Symptoms in the 40s and, and dying in 50s,” he said.
Carrie Richardson, 44, inherited a genetic mutation that caused early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. She’s participating in an Alzheimer’s research study at Washington University School of Medicine.
Scientists are searching for the secret in Doug Whitney’s biology that has protected him from dementia, hoping it could lead to ways to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s for many other people.
Among members of the Richardson family who carry a mutation in the PSEN1 gene, the average age when symptoms start is 39
For the first time, scientists say, they have evidence that using a biologic drug to remove sticky beta amyloid plaques from the brains of people destined to develop Alzheimer’s dementia can delay the disease.
Clinical trial of people destined to develop early-onset Alzheimer’s disease shows eliminating amyloid from brain may prevent symptoms, supports need for confirmatory studies
