CHICAGO, July 11 (Reuters) – The first Alzheimer’s-related changes begin to develop some 25 years before memory and thinking problems appear, according to a new study that may offer a valuable guide for companies looking to test new treatments in people at an earlier stage.
The study, published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, offers a timeline of changes in spinal fluid, brain size, the appearance of brain plaques and other factors that precede the onset of Alzheimer’s in people who are genetically predestined to develop the brain-wasting disease.