The Caring Corner®
Urine May Be Able To Detect Alzheimer’s
A recent study has found a link to Alzheimer’s and the smell of urine in mice. Mice were genetically altered to model three aspects of Alzheimer’s disease. Urine was collected from normal mice and those with disease during the research. Notable differences were detected in the smell of the urine of the diseased mice. Mice lingered longer over the urine of the mice with Alzheimer’s. Differences were noticeable even before the mice with Alzheimer’s even started showing symptoms of brain changes associated with dementia.
Special “sensor” mice were used to compare the urine and those mice lingered longer over the urine from the altered mice. Mice have a keen sense of smell and are motivated to seek out different odors. Researchers also used mass spectrometry to compare the chemical composition. The spectrometry didn’t find any noticeable chemicals that were present in the control mice urine, but rather alterations to existing compounds. Currently, there is no indicator of Alzheimer’s until the brain has suffered significant damage. If scientists could find some indicator of disease before it progresses, there would be more opportunity for drug tests to slow or halt its progression.This is useful research because it could be used to diagnose Alzheimer’s years before symptoms are noticeable. Currently, urine is used as indicators in certain diseases and breast cancer.
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