Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that can predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease seven years before clinical symptoms appear. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine The Aging of Nature (NatAge).
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and usually affects people over the age of 65. It is characterized by a variety of neurological changes, including progressive memory loss, cognitive decline, and the deposition of amyloid-beta sheets and tau helices in the brain.
Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease can significantly change the course of the disease or alleviate its consequences.
The research team trained the neural network on extensive electronic medical record databases from the University of California San Francisco Medical Center.
The results showed that AI was able to predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in 72% of cases.
The main determinants of the disease, regardless of gender, were high cholesterol, hypertension and vitamin D deficiency. Symptoms in men included erectile dysfunction and prostate enlargement, and in women osteoporosis.
The researchers hope their method can be applied to other hard-to-diagnose diseases, including lupus and endometriosis (tissue growth in the uterus).
Previous scientists was created A new way to deliver drugs to the body for Alzheimer’s disease.