Women are twice as prone to men to develop Alzheimer’s disease, a study published by “Science Advances” shows. Almost two thirds of those affected by this form of dementia are women, and biological differences are a possible explanation, according to scientists.
The risk of Alzheimer’s disease is often associated with old age. Photo: freepik.com
Women are at risk twice as high as men of developing Alzheimer’s disease, the results of a research published by the scientific magazine “Science Advances” and taken over by the international press show.
“If current trends continue, Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) will affect 13.8 million Americans by 2060, of which almost two thirds will be women.”the authors of the study show.
Biological differences, researched by specialists in Alzheimer’s disease
Research has tried to explain why women are more prone to developing this condition. Some might be tempted to explain the difference only by the fact that women generally live more. But those who study the disease say that this explanation does not cover such a big difference and I do not know exactly what the real cause would be.
Although there may be several factors involved, researchers focus on two factors where biological differences between women and men are clear: chromosomes and menopause.
“Women have two X chromosomes, and men have an X and Y. Differences between genes on X and Y chromosomes, say researchers, could provide women with an increased probability of developing Alzheimer’s. Menopause, when the production of estrogen hormones and progesterone decreases, there is another clear difference between the sex. Say the researchers, estrogen also act on the brain ”, notes The Harvard Gazette, citing the study recently published by Rachel Buckley, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, together with his colleagues, in the scientific journal Science Advances.
The risk of other conditions, influenced by sex differences
Researchers at Harvard Medical School indicate similar differences in sex and other conditions. For example, multiple sclerosis and migraines are more common in women. By contrast, Parkinson’s disease, brain tumors and epilepsy are more common in men. In some cases, such as migraines in women and Parkinson’s in men, severity is increased with higher incidence.
“Epidemiological, we see that for almost all neurological diseases there are differences in how many women and how many men are affected. There is a trend, for example, to multiple sclerosis and migraine, that more women are affected, while in brain tumors and Parkinson. said Anna Bonkhoff, resident doctor and neurology researcher at Harvard Medical School and Mass General Bright.
The basic blocks are the genes, which are arranged on 46 chromosomes, organized in 23 pairs. One of these pairs-XX in women and xy-contains genes that define sex-related characteristics, differences that represent key exploration areas. Studies have shown that genes on chromosome X are related to the immune system, brain functioning and Alzheimer’s disease.
“Many genes for the immune system and brain structure regulation are located on chromosome X, so dosage differs to a certain extent between women and men. This seems to have an effect.”completed the doctor Anna Bonkhoff.
Hormones, a possible explanation for higher risk in women
Another key difference between men and women is hormone. All people have three sex hormones: estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. In women, estrogen and progesterone are dominant, while testosterone dominates in men. Regarding hormonal changes and aging, menopause is a significant turning point throughout life, scientists notes.
Women usually go through menopause between the mid -1940s and mid -50s. At that time, the ovaries cease to produce estrogen and progesterone, which leads to the symptoms characteristic of menopause, such as blisters, emotional changes, termination of menstruation, sleep difficulties, among others.
In March, Rachel Buckley, a teacher of neurology at Harvard Medical School, followed this hormonal thread in a study that examined the impact of hormonal substitution therapy and accumulation of your protein in the brain, an essential feature of Alzheimer’s disease.
Your protein is normally found in the nerve cells of the brain and helps to stabilize the internal “skeleton” of neurons. In Alzheimer’s, your protein no longer works normally and begins to form abnormal jams inside neurons. These “ghosts”, which in turn cause harmful inflammation, can block communication between nerve cells and lead to their death.
Hormonal therapy and risk of disease
The researcher in neurology has discovered that women who received hormonal substitution therapy at an old age, after 70 years, had significantly higher levels of accumulation of your protein and underwent a more accentuated cognitive decline.
The result, she said, supports the “timing” approach in hormonal therapy, which shows that hormonal substitution therapy can be used safely to relieve menopause symptoms, but should not be continued at older age.
The theory of “timing” appeared in response to a study by Women’s Health Initiatives, funded by the state, in the early 2000s, which showed an association between hormonal substitution therapy and an increased cognitive decline. Subsequent studies have shown that hormonal therapy seemed to be protective in younger women, but was associated with a cognitive decline in women 65 and over.
“Buckley’s study showed that hormonal therapy in older women was associated with increasing your level and cognitive decline. It has not been associated with an increase in the level of beta amyloid, which is today a common therapeutic target,” The Harvard Gazette shows.
Research, published in March in Science Advances magazine provides data on the role of hormonal substitution therapy in accumulating your protein in older women. Decipifying how biological sex affects the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, say Bonkhoff and Buckley, can help us better understand Alzheimer. This understanding, they say, could lead to new ways of treatment and prevention for a disease that, despite the decades of research and the recent encouraging progress, is still little understood.
“It is an important purpose in medicine to understand and then to innovate how we can prevent or treat. If we manage to find ways to integrate sex differences to optimize the treatment of each person, either man or woman, this is the supreme purpose.”concludes Anna Bonkhoff.
What is Alzheimer
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative pathology, which affects coherent thinking, memory and behavior of patients, leading in time to the impossibility of daily activities. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia in people over 65 years old.
In the early stages it is manifested with forgetting recent events, with difficulties in accessing memory of words suitable for context, with problems of orientation in space and/ or mood changes.
Symptoms Alzheimer’s
Frequently, a person with Alzheimer’s disease presents as a first symptom, in the early stages of the condition, difficulty in remembering conversations, events and actions recently performed or memorizing the newly purchased information (loss of recent memory). The progression of the disease leads over time to the appearance of other symptoms represented by:
– temporo-spatial disorientation
– disposition disorders (depression, apathy) and behavioral (aggression)
– unjustified panic attacks
– the appearance of unfounded suspicions to the surrounding persons (family, caretakers)
– Difficulties of speaking, swallowing and maintaining posture.
Certain skills acquired throughout life such as reading, singing, dance, drawing (and practicing various crafts), the story of the events in the distant past are maintained until the last phases of the disease, because they are controlled by areas of the brain later affected in the evolution of the Alzheimer.ro.
