Defeat Dementia in Down's Syndrome

We are conducting a study based at the Cambridge Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Group (www.CIDDRG.org.uk), in partnership with the Down's Syndrome Association (DSA) and the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre (WIBC) Cambridge to investigate the risk of dementia in people with Down's syndrome (DS). This four year study is funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC).
We believe that a chemical (protein) in the brain called beta amyloid may be a key factor in causing dementia of the Alzheimer's type, and that people with DS may be more vulnerable to this type of dementia as they have more of this protein in their brains (the gene for the protein is on chromosome 21 which is inherited in triplicate in people with Down's syndrome). If excess beta amyloid is found to be an important factor then medications being developed to reduce beta amyloid deposition in the brain could possibly prevent dementia developing. This study will use new brain scanning techniques to look at the amount of beta amyloid in the brain and whether it is associated with brain changes and the symptoms of dementia.
If you have DS or know someone with DS over the age of 30, who might be interested to hear more about this study, please contact us by email [e-mail]

[@downsyndromepodcast]

Good luck. My son is 2 years old and has Downs. He may be on of the recipients of you good work. Thanks!

[@KAITHJONES]

Very Nice! I hope Kate succeeds in this!! Good Luck!

[@Melissa0774]

I wonder if more amyloid builds up in a healthy person's brain when they're very tired, since it is washed away during sleep, and if so, the difference could be seen on the PET scan, if they scanned people who are extremely tired and about to fall asleep, and people who are well rested. I'm not sure if they knew about that twelve years ago when this video was made, but there's been research since then, showing that amyloids build up throughout the day and get washed out during sleep. They think that's the purpose of sleep. There was also another paper that just recently came out, where they purposed a theory that the brain cells actually squeeze out the dirty cerebral spinal fluid during sleep, because the brain wave patterns that happen during sleep, cause them to do so. The researchers wondered if problems with this process could be the cause of Altheimer's. Of course, if that's the case, then Down Syndrome obviously affects the process even more, for whatever reason. Do people with Down Syndrome have more sleep disturbances than healthy people?

[@laurenwood1975]

That's fascinating! Yes, people with down syndrome so have a higher risk of conditions like sleep apnea.

[@lady007_]

Wow, such a great cause. Hope you do defeat dementia! Keep up the good work :D x

[@zhbroder]

woah does martha live independantly?!