Brain nerve cell damage occurs ten to 20 years before any Alzheimer’s symptoms occur in the 1% of Alzheimer’s sufferers who have the inherited form of the disease.
The damage occurs rapidly, but then may slow once symptoms appear.
Professor Colin Masters and colleagues from around the world, including Australia, looked at a protein that shows brain nerve cell damage has occurred. They measured the protein in the blood and spinal fluid of people with a gene that causes Alzheimer’s. They also looked at MRI and PET images of the people’s brains to measure damage.
The measurements were started before they had symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
Read more at Florey Institute