Educational content on VJDementia is intended for healthcare professionals only. By visiting this website and accessing this information you confirm that you are a healthcare professional.

Share this video  

AD/PD 2026 | The need to better define the natural history of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease

Betty Tijms, PhD, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands, discusses the complexities of understanding sporadic Alzheimer’s disease, highlighting the challenges of determining an individual’s disease timeline. Dr Tijms notes that repeated molecular measurements over time are necessary, and suggests that measuring proteomics in the cerebrospinal fluid may provide a detailed molecular window into the brain. This interview took place at the AD/PD™ 2026 International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases in Copenhagen, Denmark.

These works are owned by Magdalen Medical Publishing (MMP) and are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All rights are reserved.

Transcript

Well, what we know of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease is that amyloid aggregates into plaques in the brain and tau into tangles, but the sequence of molecular events leading to these aggregations and then how the brain further reacts to that, so what is a consequence of that, that’s poorly understood. And that’s because it’s very difficult for sporadic Alzheimer’s disease to place a person in their individual disease timelines...

Well, what we know of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease is that amyloid aggregates into plaques in the brain and tau into tangles, but the sequence of molecular events leading to these aggregations and then how the brain further reacts to that, so what is a consequence of that, that’s poorly understood. And that’s because it’s very difficult for sporadic Alzheimer’s disease to place a person in their individual disease timelines. Based on cross-sectional data, it’s difficult to understand where a person is in their disease timeline. So we know that there’s preclinical Alzheimer’s disease, that you have normal cognition and abnormal amyloid. But then people vary a lot in how they progress. And another limitation is that we need to follow people over time and have repeated molecular measurements. And this is also something that’s not simple to do. And I think the only way to have a very detailed molecular window into the brain is by measuring proteomics in the cerebrospinal fluid.

This transcript is AI-generated. While we strive for accuracy, please verify this copy with the video.

Read more...