Colds and stomach bugs speed up memory loss in Alzheimer's patients: research Alzheimer's patients experience faster memory loss if they have an infection, British researchers have found.
Published: 8:00PM BST 07 Sep 2009
A protein activated by the immune system when an infection is found in the body is also involved in the transmission of signals between brain cells and is present in large amounts in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease.
A team at Southampton University studied 222 people with Alzheimer's disease with an average age of 83.
They took blood samples and carried out cognitive tests at the beginning of the study and again at intervals for six months while over the same period carers reported if they had suffered any accidents or infections.
Over the six months 110 of the patients suffered an infection or an accident that led to inflammation and their memory loss, as measured on the cognitive tests, had deteriorated twice as fast as those who had been healthy throughout.
People who had high levels of the tumour necrosis factor-a protein (TNF) at the beginning of the study, suggesting they had long-term inflammation, probably due to a chronic condition, had memory loss four times as fast as those with low levels of TNF at the start of the study.
The patients who had high levels of TNF at the start of the study and then also suffered an infection during the six months had memory loss ten times faster than people with consistently low levels.
The results were published in the journal Neurology.
Lead author Dr Clive Holmes, said: "One might guess that people with a more rapid rate of cognitive decline are more susceptible to infections or injury but we found no evidence to suggest that people with more severe dementia were more likely to have infections or injuries at the beginning of the study.
"More research needs to be done to understand the role of tumour necrosis factor-alpha in the brain but it is possible that finding a way to reduce those levels could be beneficial for people with Alzheimer's disease."
TNF also plays a role in the development of rheumatoid arthritis and drugs have been developed to block its action which have been shown in small scale trials to have some effect in Alzheimer's patients although more work is needed.
Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust said: “This fascinating study shows that infections and inflammation may be linked to memory loss in Alzheimer’s. We need to do more research into this and all aspects of the disease to understand its cause.
“By learning more about Alzheimer’s we hope to develop new treatments which are desperately needed by the 410,000 people with the disease in the UK.”
Hey Ed, I have not had a chance to look at the article, but I am not surprised. Each time Jim (FTD) developed bronchitis, pneumonia, etc last winter he declined some. Very interesting. Tks for sharing!
It is sad that they only use older victims of this disease and not include the EOAD. It would be interesting to see if the same holds out. Logic says it would, but who knows. But then who knows about this disease anyway.
This is interesting. My DH was just at his doctor's office today with back pain. Dr. thinks its arthritis and gave him an anti inflammatory drug. For the past two days he has shown decline and I wonder is this the cause or is it just a natural progression of AD?
You can read much more about some aspects of this idea on the Alz.org message board. Here are two message threads. The second one is exremely long, with a vast amount of information and opinion to wade through:
My husband has apparently had a chronic infection (disagreement re staph or strep) for many many years. The real decline started after his last hospitalization with it ten years ago.