Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, making up about 62% of all cases.
According to the CDC, more than 5 million Americans were expected to have Alzheimer’s disease in 2020. By 2060, 14 million people are expected to be living the disease.
In most cases, symptoms do not manifest until the mid-60s. Alzheimer’s disease is rare among younger individuals, but a new case study highlightes the need “to pay attention to the early-onset Alzheimer’s disease” in young people.
Although Alzheimer’s disease is uncommon in younger people, a recent case study underscores the necessity of developing additional interventions for this population.
Recently, a Chinese teenager has been diagnosed with probable Alzheimer’s disease, becoming the youngest known patient with the condition in the world.
The 19-year-old, who is said to be from Beijing, had been exhibiting symptoms such as memory loss, trouble focusing, delayed responses, and reading problems for two years.
When he went to see doctors at the Capital Medical University in Beijing, he was unable to recall what he had eaten for dinner the day before, and as a result, he had to drop out of his senior year of high school.
Tests and scans showed that his hypothalamus had shrunk. This is a part of the brain that helps with thinking. Additionally, he had Alzheimer’s-related symptoms including tau protein elevation and temporal lobe damage.
The physicians who recently released the case report were perplexed to discover that he did not have a family history or the genetic mutation that is typically associated with Alzheimer’s disease in young patients.
An early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease may be determined by mutations in many genes, including presenilin 1, presenilin 2, and amyloid precursor protein (APP). These mutations cause the body to make too much amyloid-beta peptide, a toxic protein fragment that is a precursor to the amyloid plaques that are a sign of Alzheimer’s.
According to the authors, “This is the youngest case ever reported to meet the diagnostic criteria for probable [Alzheimer’s disease] without recognized genetic mutations.”
Alzheimer’s usually happens to people over 65.
Approximately five to ten percent of all Alzheimer’s cases are diagnosed before the age of 65.
The previous record holder for the youngest individual diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease was a 21-year-old with a genetic mutation.
The findings of the Beijing team add to the growing amount of scientific research into faster diagnostics that can find signs of a disease years before its symptoms show up.
The results of the study challenge the long-held notion that Alzheimer’s is primarily a condition affecting the elderly.
The authors “proposed to pay attention to the early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
“Exploring the mysteries of young people with Alzheimer’s disease may become one of the most challenging scientific questions of the future.”
The findings of the case study were published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
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