Sufferers of Alzheimer’s disease who also have a mother with the illness may have the disease because of an inability of the brain to efficiently use glucose, according to new findings.
The conclusions were drawn by a group led by Lisa Mosconi, a research assistant professor at the Center for Brain Health at New York University Langone Medical Center.
In the group’s latest study, following on from research conducted last year, the researchers studied glucose metabolism in the brain over a two-year period.
The team studied 66 Alzheimer’s sufferers aged between 50 and 82, some of which had mothers with the disease, some with fathers and the rest with no parent carriers.
Results from the study concluded that those with a maternal history of the disease had progressive metabolic reductions in glucose usage and at a faster rate in areas of the brain affected by Alzheimer’s, compared with those with paternal or no parent history.
Dr Mosconi said: "They have metabolic reductions in the brain regions that are typically affected by Alzheimer’s disease, which worsen over time."
The previous study was on the same topic with the recent findings extending the initial observations to two years.
