The University of Kentucky's Dr. Frederick A. Schmitt was in Walter Hall Friday to shed some light on the research history of Alzheimer's Disease, the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.
The PowerPoint presentation, attended by nearly 50 faculty and students, touched on 100 years of Alzheimer's research and addressed ongoing studies regarding new approaches to easing and identifying symptoms.
We have been amazingly unsuccessful in treating this disease; evidence is leading us to believe that Alzheimer's Disease starts 10
maybe 20 years before clinical symptoms arise Schmitt said.
Although Alzheimer's Disease, or AD, has been recognized as a viable illness for more than a century, real breakthroughs in research didn't come until a 1968 landmark study found that the existence of dementia was related to the buildup of plague in the cerebral cortex.
Many firsts for AD research came out of the 1980s, with the funding of the first research centers by the National Institute on Aging, the development of the Clinical Dementia Rating scale and the linking of AD to chromosome 21 and certain proteins.
There is no singular cause that we know of for Alzheimer's Disease; one primary cause is old age but the brain has many mechanisms
Schmitt said.
In 1991, the NIA and the University of California, San Diego, established the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study to research treatment. This resulted in the development of Mild Cognitive Impairment symptoms, a model still used today to identify those at risk for AD.
A short question and answer session for attendees followed the one-hour lecture.
Dr. Frederick Schmitt has been studying Alzheimer's Disease for over 25 years
been funded by the National Institutes of Health and has been published in 125 publications. It was a pleasure to have him here
said Jennifer Horner, associate dean for Research and Graduate Studies.
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Emily Willis
