EARLY detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s will be boosted with more than $2 million of State Government funding announced for research last week.
Led by the Nedlands-based McCusker Foundation, the money will be used to test 1600 Australians, including 500 from WA, to identify specific brain markers for the disease.
A High Performance Mass Spectrometer will also be bought to research blood testing for the disease. Earlier detection would allow quicker prescriptions of drugs to delay Alzheimer’s progression.
Foundation research director Ralph Martins said all research patients would be predisposed to developing the disease.
“Once patients are injected with a special tracer agent, their brain will be imaged using a Positron emission tomography scan to identify brain activity in certain brain regions,” Prof Martins said.
“This enables my clinicians and researchers to compare the results against other more conventional scans of the patient’s brain to try to determine if Alzheimer’s disease is present.”
Nedlands MLA Bill Marmion said an early diagnosis enabled at-risk people to alter lifestyles while better treatments and medications were developed.
Scarborough resident John Pauley (64), whose mother and grandmother both suffered Alzheimer’s, entered the program and has so far shown no signs of developing the disease.
He said he had retired early to travel with his wife fearing he was susceptible, and hoped his participation in the research would help future generations and families prepare for the disease.