Simple new tool could help doctors spot dementia

 Researchers say they may soon be able to easily identify adults who are on the path to Alzheimer’s disease, using a tool that works in a similar way to a pediatrician’s growth charts.

The tool, called the QuoCo (a play on the term “cognitive quotient”), allows doctors to test the memory or cognitive performance of any patient and then plot changes over time, to see if those changes fit within the normal range.

“It allows you to track the performance of an individual over time to see if that individual is following the normal cognitive decline associated with normal aging,” a neurologist explained.

A Dr. said he and his team  helped establish a range of what constitutes “normal cognitive decline” by following 8,000 healthy individuals and tracking their performance using a well-established dementia screening tool called the MMSE, or Mini Mental State Examination.

They were then able to build a cognitive decline chart similar to the growth charts used in pediatrics. Physicians can use the tool to plot an older patient’s cognitive changes over time and determine if they are “falling off” the curve.

A new study of the QuoCo tool, found that it was 80 per cent accurate in correctly identifying those with dementia, and 89 per cent accurate in identifying those without it.

The Dr. noted that the QuoCo looks at more than an individual’s MMSE test score. It also takes into consideration an individual’s age and education level, since research has shown that those with less education, for example, tend to have faster cognitive declines than those with more.

He also noted that the QuoCo would not be “the only part of the equation” in diagnosing dementia, which is why the average family member could not conduct the test on a loved one themselves.

“The interpretation of these screening tests would have to be done with great expertise,” he said, which is why a physician is best suited to use the tool, since they can take a full clinical history, and conduct a physical examination to eliminate other possible causes for cognitive changes.

Although there is no cure for dementia and few medications that can slow the disease, the  Dr. believes that new treatments to delay cognitive decline are on the horizon.

“We’re on the verge of vaccines, for instance, for 'prodromal' Alzheimer’s, or early stage Alzheimer’s, that we expect results on in about a year,” he said.

For that reason, he believes it’s important to create tools like QuoCo, to spot the earliest warning signs of the disease.

“When brain damage is advanced -- when there’s irreversible brain damage -- there’s not much we can do. So early screening is the key,” he said.

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Researchers find new screening tool for Parkinson’s disease

According to a new study, researchers are using breakthrough gene-editing technology to develop a new screening tool for Parkinson's disease, a debilitating degenerative disorder of the nervous system.  

The technology allows scientists in the lab to "light up" and then monitor a brain protein called alpha-synuclein that has been associated with Parkinson's.


“Alpha-synuclein is a protein that is normally found in the brain. We all have it but for some reason, when you have Parkinson's the levels become abnormal. So if we can monitor this protein in the cell, we can start to measure what causes it to go up and also what treatments can cause it to go down,” said  one of the lead researchers on the project.

The researchers believe their work is a crucial step toward identifying new drug therapies for Parkinson's disease.

He is partnering with doctoral student  and scientist to study Parkinson's, which affects motor functions caused by a gradual loss of brain cells.

There are about 60,000 new cases of Parkinson's each year in some countries.

They are using CRISPR Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) gene-editing technology.

The system is one of research's fastest growing biomedical techniques that allows scientists to make specific changes in the DNA of plants and animals while not killing cells.

The system is becoming instrumental in studying genetically based treatments for diseases including cancer and Parkinson's.

Kim, who is also a medical doctor, shared, “It's the most powerful and widely used gene-editing technique in use because it allows us to change the DNA in living cells. The innovation of this method is that it enables us to monitor this gene in real-time without killing the cell. Without the CRISPR Cas-9 method, you would have to extract all the proteins from the cell to measure them, which kills the cell.”

Using the CRISPR technique, the team edited the alpha-synuclein gene and inserted a luminescent tag made from proteins that causes fireflies to light up.

Every time the cell creates the alpha-synuclein protein, the tag gives off a light.

He noted, “More light means an increased level of alpha-synuclein, which would be considered a diseased state.”

The researchers found that measuring light was a reliable method to measure alpha-synuclein production.

“If we take one of these modified cells and treat it with a particular drug, if it doesn't produce light anymore, then this means the drug is a potential treatment for this disease,” he said.

With the engineered cells, the team can screen new and existing drugs to see how they regulate alpha-synuclein level in patients.

“With an easy-to-measure reporter like light production, this will allow us to do high throughput screening, where you can test a large panel of drugs at once,” he said.

With the new technology, the scientists hope to identifying ways to reduce alpha-synuclein production that can possibly prevent Parkinson's or its progression in patients diagnosed with the disease.

The team said research will focus on what aspects of the alpha- synuclein protein kill neurons during Parkinson's disease.

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