Unique smartphone game to help in predicting risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

It is a popular game already downloaded by over 4.3 million people

Alzheimer's sits right at the confluence of a number of unfortunate circumstances. Modern medicine has not got any major breakthrough in the cure of this perennial roadblock to elderly care. For decades it was widely believed that the cause of Alzheimer's was the build-up of abnormal proteins called amyloid and Tau but treatments based on the "amyloid hypothesis" have failed and it's time to focus on inflammation techniques.

Now researchers have formulated a specially designed game that elderly people could play on their smartphone and get diagnosed for even the slightest of symptoms for Alzheimer's.

The game called Sea Hero Quest has been developed by Deutsche Telekom in partnership with Alzheimer's Research UK, University College London (UCL) and the University of East Anglia. It enables to better understand dementia by seeing how the brain works in relation to spatial navigation. It is a popular game already downloaded by over 4.3 million people over the globe.

"Dementia will affect 135 million people worldwide by 2050. We need to identify people to reduce their risk of developing dementia," said Lead researcher Professor Michael Hornberger from UEA's Norwich Medical School. Progression of dementia can be delayed in case of early diagnosis.

There has been large scale acceptance of the fact the global researchers have yet not been able to draft a comprehensive preventive module for Alzheimer's. The central reason for that has been a lack of multidimensional understanding of the problem.

The research team studied gaming data taken from 27,108 UK players, aged 50-75 years and the most vulnerable age-group to develop Alzheimer's in the next decade. They compared this benchmark data with a smaller lab-based group of 60 people who underwent genetic testing.

Info Domain: Alzheimer's is a disease of aggregation. Neurons in the human brain make a protein called amyloid beta. Such proteins on their own, called monomers of amyloid beta, perform important tasks for neurons.

It is an irreversible progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and eventually the human ability to carry out even the simplest of tasks.

Prevention: Diet rich in Omega 3 fatty acids (Walnuts ) help reduce the risk. Also, regular physical exercise like brisk walking, cycling, swimming and mental exercises like solving puzzle and writing content also helps.

Cause for Concern

The Alzheimer's Association estimates that more than 5.8 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, a number that will double by 2040 and cost USD 1 trillion per year by 2050.