Genetic Biomaker Helps Detect Lewy Body Dementia

A recent study shows that genetic biomarkers can help detect Lewy body dementia, a disease that can often be confused with Alzheimer's, according to researchers from the Germans Trias i Pujol Health Sciences Research Institute (IGTP) and the Universitate Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB).

According to background information from the study, results show that the biomarker is found in 20 percent of cases and subgroups of the pathology.

Lewy body dementia (LBD) is characterized by symptoms including gradual deterioration of memory and thought processes, behavior and physical activity. This includes similarities that with patients Alzheimer's disease have, causing many with LBD to be wrongly diagnosed. These patients, therefore, maybe be treated with Alzheimer's medications, and prevented from the proper medical treatments.

At this time, as there is no specific test to diagnose LBD, various neurological tests can help detect the possibility of the problem.

Researchers conducted studies that led to the biomarker and found that 20 percent of LBD cases were differentiated between one sub-group of LBD and Alzheimer's disease.

"Although this marker only detects a certain number of LBD sufferers, it significantly increases diagnostic sensitivity to the disease and these patients can get an accurate diagnosis and therefore the right treatment", said Dr Katrin Beyer, head of the research project and belonging to the Group of Structural and Molecular Pathology, Department of Pathology at the Germans Trias Hospital and Institute, via a press release.

According to background information from previous findings, researchers first noticed the biomarker via a study of post motem brain samples via the expression of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BCHE) in the brains of patients with LBD.

The study concludes with the following, via the release "These data indicated that there could be genetic alterations in the BCHE gene promoter, causing changes in the expression of the gene. In fact, they found four polymorphisms in the LBD promoter region that, in certain combinations, are associated with LBD. These findings, which have been patented, make it possible to determine if a patient has LBD, distinguishing it from Alzheimer's disease.

"Currently, the patent is in its last stage of validation, which is being carried out in collaboration with neurologists from the Neurodegenerative Disease Unit of the Germans Trias Hospital and Bellvitge Hospital.

The licensing agreement with the Grifols company means the results can be applied, thus providing a simple, rapid, and effective procedure for diagnosing LBD in hospitals. Moreover, the marker can also be used to design clinical studies to help identify groups of patients with a more accurate diagnosis, removing, for example, LBD cases from a group of Alzheimer's patients."

More information regarding the study can be found via the Institute's website.