China News Agency, Beijing, August 15 (Reporter Li Yanan Guo Chaokai) Recently, Chinese experts found that news of Alzheimer's disease biomarkers can be predicted 5 to 7 years in advance on social media hot searches, which also triggered another The society pays great attention to Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common pathological type in senile dementia, and it is also one of the diseases with the highest incidence in the elderly population. Once sick, people's memory, thinking and judgment ability will be slowly erased by the "eraser" in the mind. There are currently nearly 10 million Alzheimer's patients in China. With the acceleration of aging, the burden of disease facing patients' families and society is becoming heavier.
Alzheimer’s disease is referred to by some as a “hundred-year loneliness” disease, not only because of the real dilemmas that patients have to face, but also because of the long-standing difficulties in diagnostic techniques and methods that Alzheimer’s has faced. There is currently no effective Medicine can be cured.
It is understood that the global treatment of Alzheimer's disease mainly relies on a variety of drugs previously marketed, and all of them are symptom-improving drugs. In the past two decades, major pharmaceutical companies around the world have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in research and development, and hundreds of drugs that have entered clinical research have failed.
Experts generally believe that at present, early identification and early intervention of cognitive decline is the most effective way to delay Alzheimer's disease.
At the scientific research level, because biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease play an important role in the early diagnosis of clinical and scientific research, this field has become one of the research hotspots in recent years.
Recently, Jia Jianping’s team from Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University found that neurogenic exosomal synaptoproteins in peripheral blood can be used as biomarkers for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease during the asymptomatic period, 5 to 7 years before the onset of symptoms. The accuracy of predicting this disease is as high as 87%-89%, which is believed to bring more possibilities for early diagnosis, intervention and effective treatment.
Previously, research by the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutions found that the imaging features of the hippocampus of the brain can be used as a stable, effective, and generalizable biomarker for Alzheimer's disease, and it is expected to be applied to individuals as a biomarker for clinical diagnosis. Chemical diagnosis is considered to be of great clinical significance for the precise assisted identification of Alzheimer's disease clinical practice and the longitudinal tracking of high-risk populations in the future.
Official statistics show that the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease among people aged 65 and over in China is 5.56%, and it is expected to exceed 40 million by 2050. In order to delay this trend as much as possible, the government has taken multiple measures to strengthen the layout of the prevention and control of risk factors throughout the life course, as well as early screening and comprehensive intervention.
At the policy level, the 2016 "Healthy China 2030" Planning Outline clearly stated that effective interventions such as Alzheimer's should be strengthened. The key tasks of the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for Healthy Aging" issued in 2017 also clearly require screening for Alzheimer's disease. In September 2019, the National Health Commission of China announced the "Alzheimer's Disease Prevention and Intervention Core Information", which clearly listed patients and family members who should be aware of the many early signs of the disease and actively prevent and intervene.
The Yu Jintai team of the Department of Neurology of Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University has recently published the world's first international guide for evidence-based prevention of Alzheimer's disease in an international authoritative journal with an expert group composed of well-known scholars at home and abroad in this field.
In response to the lack of awareness of common diseases at the grassroots level and the high rate of missed diagnosis, as the fastest aging region in China, Shanghai is also actively exploring local strategies to deal with Alzheimer's disease. The Shanghai Mental Health Center initiated the implementation of the Ministry of Science and Technology's key special "Neurocognitive Disorder Grading Diagnosis, Treatment and Rehabilitation" project, exploring the establishment of a whole-process medical record management model for neurocognitive disorders graded diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation based on families, communities and tertiary hospitals.
Although there is still no effective drug to cure Alzheimer's disease, more and more positive signs are emerging: basic drugs and non-drug treatment items for Alzheimer's disease are included in the scope of medical insurance reimbursement, and long-term care insurance is tested in many places. System, China’s first innovative drug for Alzheimer's disease is launched...This problem facing millions of Alzheimer's patients and their families is waiting for the optimal solution. (Finish)