Alzheimer’s Risk Predicted Years Before Symptoms Appear

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have developed a new predictive tool that can estimate an individual’s risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an early stage of memory loss that can often evolve into Alzheimer’s disease, years before the first symptoms show up.

With a long list of Alzheimer’s drugs failing in late-stage clinical trials over the past two decades, research is increasingly focusing on improving our understanding and ability to detect the early stages of the disease, including asymptomatic and MCI phases. Some of the brain changes that lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s can happen 10 to 20 years before a person is diagnosed with dementia, offering a window of opportunity for interventions to prevent disease progression.

“What’s exciting now is that we’re looking e