[jtmoulia]

For a stretch I helped research Alzheimer's effects the olfactory system -- one result of the cascade of Alzheimer's described in the article is that olfactory sensory neurons start mistargeting their downstream glomeruli [1] [2]. Alzheimer's patients correspondingly perform poorly on odor identification tests, though the confounding factor of dementia makes it a poor diagnostic tool.

More generally, while this article mostly discusses treatment, the physical symptoms of plaques, tangles, and neural degeneration occur before a patient starts displaying dementia. Assuming an Alzheimer's treatment can't reverse the damage done, it would have to be coupled with an early diagnostic, something which doesn't exist yet.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfactory_receptor_neuron#media...

2. http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n8/fig_tab/ncomms201...

[irremediable]

> Assuming an Alzheimer's treatment can't reverse the damage done, it would have to be coupled with an early diagnostic, something which doesn't exist yet.

I'm actually starting a PhD in a group that's hoping to use imaging (e.g. ASL/DCMRI) for just this purpose! Very early days in this, both for me and the group, but there are a lot of different things that can be tried.

[jtmoulia]

Very cool -- it would be fantastic to see a regular Alzheimer's checkup that fit into someone's medical routine. Well, especially once there's a treatment.

It's a growing 'epidemic', though strangely due to improvements in medicine: we're living longer. Best of luck.