Early Detection of Lewy Body Disease
Prevention of age-related disease is in principle a good deal easier than effecting a cure. This is why it is important to develop methods of early detection of disease, identifying people who are at risk well prior to the onset of symptoms. This is particularly so in the case of neurodegenerative conditions, such as the Lewy body dementia that is the subject of the research noted here, in which the causative biological changes build up over years or decades prior to evident symptoms. Early intervention with even presently available strategies or lifestyle changes might be enough to meaningfully delay the onset of disease.
Lewy body disease is an umbrella term for Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia. When movement difficulties are more dominant, the disease is called Parkinson's disease, and when cognitive impairments are dominant, the term Lewy body dementia is used. Lewy body disease is caused by the misfolding of the alpha-synuclein protein in the brain. When this happens, the protein clumps together and forms what are called Lewy bodies, which damage the nerve cells.
Until very recently, it was not possible to determine with certainty whether a person with movement difficulties or cognitive impairments had Lewy bodies in the brain until after their death. But now, with a spinal fluid test, it is possible to see if the person has the misfolded protein. Researches conducted a large study involving over 1,100 individuals, none of whom initially showed any cognitive impairments or motor difficulties. However, it turned out that nearly ten percent had Lewy bodies in their brains according to the spinal fluid test. Therefore, it is possible to detect Lewy body disease even before the first symptoms appear.
"Despite the participants not having any cognitive or neurological problems at the beginning of the study, we observed that those with Lewy bodies in the brain subsequently experienced a decline in their cognitive functions over time. They were also the ones who developed Parkinson's disease or Lewy body dementia in the coming years." An interesting finding was also that Lewy bodies are strongly associated with a reduced sense of smell even before other symptoms have developed. The sense of smell also deteriorates as the disease progresses. The correlation is so clear that it could be justified to screen individuals over 60 years of age with a smell test and then proceed with testing spinal fluid if one wants to detect Lewy body disease early
Link: https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/lewy-body-disease-can-be-detected-symptoms