- SYDNEY (ANI) -- Melbourne
researchers have claimed that soon it will be possible to diagnose Alzheimer's
disease by just taking an eye test.
-
- Ashley Bush, an Alzheimer's researcher from the University
of Melbourne and Harvard Medical School, recently told the Society for
Neuroscience in Orlando, Florida, that he had found high levels of beta
amyloid protein - which causes Alzheimer's - in the eye lenses of people
who had died due to the disease, reports The Age.
-
- "You could get a diagnostic test by going to an
ophthalmologist," the researcher added.
-
- Professor Bush has also experimented with genetically
engineered mice to prove that beta amyloid levels in the eye lens indicate
the onset of Alzheimer's.
-
- But he was unable to provide details because his research
is awaiting approval for publication by an international science journal.
-
- The finding also had implications for treating blindness
because beta amyloid could cause cataracts, he stated.
-
- Ross Murdoch, chief operating officer of Prana Biotechnology,
the Melbourne company developing Professor Bush's research, said the only
dependable way to measure beta amyloid build-up had been to examine a person's
brain after they had died.
-
- However, he said it would be some years before a simple
eye test was available. (ANI)
-
- Copyright © 2001 ANI-Asian News International. All
rights reserved.
|
