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Alzheimer's Disease Tied to Increased Risk of Type 2
Diabetes
posted 03/18/04
Patients with Alzheimer's disease are more prone to developing type 2 diabetes.
Using the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Patient Registry, the researchers determined that the prevalence of both type 2 diabetes and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) were more prevalent in Alzheimer's disease subjects (n=100) than in non-Alzheimer's disease controls (n=138).
Eighty-one percent of Alzheimer's disease subjects had either type 2 diabetes (35%) or IFG (46%). Among the controls, only 18% had type 2 diabetes and 24% had IFG).
In a related pathology study of pancreas and brain specimens obtained at autopsy from subjects who had died, islet amyloid was more common and extensive (p < 0.05 for both) in Alzheimer's disease patients than in the controls.
Brain amyloid was not more common in patients with type 2 diabetes than in non-type 2 diabetes control subjects. However, when brain amyloid was present in type 2 diabetics, the extent of the amyloid increased with the duration of diabetes, but not with age. This suggests to the team that prolonged exposure to hyperglycemia might trigger brain plaque formation.
Dr. Peter C. Butler from the University of Southern California and colleagues stated that, "Taken together, these clinical and pathological studies support a possible link between the neurodegenerative processes that lead to loss of cortical brain cells in Alzheimer disease's and the loss of beta-cells in type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Butler also noted that, "this study suggests that the abnormal aggregation of proteins in the islet in type-2 diabetics and aggregation of very similar proteins in the brain of people with Alzheimer's disease are both important in the cause of the disease."
"Perhaps even more interesting," he added, "it suggests that the genetic predisposition for these diseases might well be shared."
Dr. Butler suggested that, "if treatments can be found that prevent these abnormal protein aggregates from forming, the same therapy might very well be useful for treatment and prevention both type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease."
Source: Diabetes In Control.com: Diabetes 2004;53:474-481.
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