Changes in the Retina Can Be Linked to Parts of the Brain of Healthy Subjects at Risk of Alzheimer’s

In subjects who are cognitively healthy but have a high genetic risk of developing Alzheimer’s, correlations have been demonstrated between the retina and various brain structures which suffer changes as a result of the disease, such as the entorhinal cortex, the lingual gyrus and the hippocampus. This is the main conclusion of the research led by the Ramón Castroviejo Institute for Ophthalmological Research (IIORC) of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).

The novelty of the study, published in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, lies in the fact that for the first time it has examined the correlations between the retinal areas and the cerebral structures most affected in Alzheimer’s, a disease in which up to two decades can pass before the first appearance of symptoms.

To carry out the research, a group of patients was included whose fathers or mothers suffered from Alzheimer’s and who had a mutation in their gene ApoE ɛ4, which predisposes them to suffer from the disease. “We have seen that these participants already show changes in some areas of the retina measured with OCT, while the brain MRI is still normal”, says López-Cuenca.

As well as the structure of the retina, the UCM group is collecting data on patients’ eyesight, to discover how the visual network operates in these phases of the disease which are still asymptomatic.

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