Unveiling the Impact of Preventive Interventions on Brain Imaging in Alzheimer’s risk subjects

Published on November 24, 2022

Alzheimer’s Disease is like a complicated puzzle with many pieces, and scientists are trying to find ways to prevent or slow down its progression. In this review, researchers analyzed 43 studies that looked at the effects of preventive interventions on brain imaging biomarkers in people who are at risk of developing Alzheimer’s. They examined interventions such as exercise, nutrition, cognitive training, and combined approaches. By studying the brain scans of these individuals, they aimed to understand how these interventions may influence the brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s. The findings suggest that the interventions may have a positive effect on the brains of individuals with cognitive impairment. The researchers also discovered that the interventions specifically impacted the frontal areas of the brain. This information can help guide future clinical trials for Alzheimer’s prevention by identifying which interventions have the greatest impact on brain health. To learn more about this research and delve deeper into the details, check out the full article!

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a multifactorial and complex neurodegenerative disorder. Some modifiable risk factors have been associated with an increased risk of appearance of the disease and/or cognitive decline. Preventive clinical trials aiming at reducing one or combined risk factors have been implemented and their potential effects assessed on cognitive trajectories and on AD biomarkers. However, the effect of interventions on surrogate markers, in particular imaging biomarkers, remains poorly understood. We conducted a review of the literature and analyzed 43 interventional studies that included physical exercise, nutrition, cognitive training or multidomain interventions, and assessed various brain imaging biomarkers, to determine the effects of preventive interventions on imaging biomarkers for subjects at-risk to develop AD. Deciphering the global and regional brain effect of each and combined interventions will help to better understand the interplay relationship between multimodal interventions, cognition, surrogate brain markers, and to better design primary and secondary outcomes for future preventive clinical trials. Those studies were pondered using generally-admitted quality criteria to reveal that interventions may affect the brain of patients with cognitive impairment rather than those without cognitive impairment thus indicating that particular care should be taken when selecting individuals for interventions. Additionally, a majority of the studies concurred on the effect of the interventions and particularly onto the frontal brain areas.

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