Scott Small, MD, of Columbia University has utilized advanced fMRI techniques to detect the precise location of Alzheimer's. His new work has discovered that the disease begins in a very precise location of the brain, the lateral entorhinal cortex ( LEC), and spreads to other regions of the brain as the disease progresses. Additionally, they have demonstrated that AD exclusively develops when both tau and amyloid precursor protein ( APP) co-exist in the LEC The study has implications for both research and treatment. "Now that we've pinpointed where Alzheimer's starts, and shown that those changes are observable using fMRI, we may be able to detect Alzheimer's at its earliest preclinical stage, when the disease might be more treatable and before it spreads to other brain regions," said Dr. Small.
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