??? Get one trip story fo’ share wit you guys today, ’bout da eye bein’ mo’ den jus’ one window fo’ da soul — da eye stay also show us one person’s cognitive health. ???
Da kine ophthalmologist Dr. Christine Greer wen say, “Da eye stay da window into da brain.” She stay da director of medical education at da Institute fo’ Neurodegenerative Diseases in Boca Raton, Florida. She stay talkin’ ’bout how wen you look in da back of da eye, you can see da optic nerve an’ da retina, an’ dat’s da nervous system right dea. ??️?
Plenny research stay checkin’ out how da eye might help fo’ figgah out if get Alzheimer’s disease befo’ any symptoms start showin’ up. By da time da memory an’ behavior stay affected, da disease stay already far along. ?️??
Da kine Dr. Richard Isaacson, one Alzheimer’s preventive neurologist from da same institute, wen say dat Alzheimer’s disease starts in da brain long time befo’ da firs’ symptoms of memory loss. ?⚕️?️?
If da doctors can figgah out da disease wen it stay early, den da peeps can make healthy lifestyle choices an’ manage da tings dey can control, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, an’ diabetes. ???♂️
Da question stay: How early can we see da signs of cognitive decline? One recent study wen go look at tissue from da retina an’ brains of 86 peeps wit different degrees of mental decline. ???
Da kine senior author Maya Koronyo-Hamaoui, one professor of neurosurgery an’ biomedical sciences at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, wen say dat dis study stay da firs’ fo’ give in-depth analysis of da protein profiles, molecular, cellular, an’ structural effects of Alzheimer’s disease in da human retina. Den, dey wen see how dat stay match up wit da changes in da brain an’ cognitive function. ???
Da changes in da retina wen show up wit da changes in parts of da brain called da entorhinal an’ temporal cortices, wea stay da hub fo’ memory, navigation, an’ da perception of time. ⏳??
Da study wen collect samples of retinal an’ brain tissue from 86 human donors wit Alzheimer’s disease an’ mild cognitive impairment fo’ 14 years — da largest group of retinal samples evah studied, according to da authors. ???
Den, da researchers wen compare da samples from donors wit normal cognitive function to da ones wit mild cognitive impairment an’ da ones wit lata-stage Alzheimer’s disease. ?️??
Da study, wea wen get published in da journal Acta Neuropathologica, wen find big kine increases in beta-amyloid, one key marka of Alzheimer’s disease, in peeps wit both Alzheimer’s an’ early cognitive decline. ???
Da microglial cells wen go down by
80% in da peeps wit cognitive issues, da study wen find out. Dose cells stay responsible fo’ fixin’ an’ maintainin’ odda cells, includin’ clearin’ beta-amyloid from da brain an’ retina. ??️?
“Markers of inflammation wen also found, which might be one equally important marka fo’ disease progression,” Dr. Isaacson wen say, even if he nevah wen work on da study. ???
Da findings also stay showin’ up in peeps wit no or minimal cognitive symptoms, which means dese new eye tests could be good fo’ help wit early diagnosis. ?????
Da study researchers wen find mo’ high numbahs of immune cells stay tight ’round da amyloid beta plaques an’ odda cells responsible fo’ inflammation an’ cell an’ tissue death. ☠️??
Da tissue atrophy an’ inflammation in cells in da far periphery of da retina stay da most predictive of cognitive status, da study wen find. ???
“Dis kine findings could eventu’ly lead to da development of imaging techniques dat allow us fo’ diagnose Alzheimer’s disease earlier an’ mo’ accurately,” Dr. Isaacson wen say, “an’ monitor its progression noninvasively jus’ by lookin’ troo da eye.” ???️
So, stay tuned fo’ all da lates’ news on Health, an’ no miss out on wat stay happenin’ in dis fas’ world we stay livin’ in! ?️?️?
Shaka an’ aloha, till da next time we talk story! ???
