PacBio to partner ‘first ever’ North African based dementia study

The North African Dementia Registry (NADR) is led by global body, the Davos Alzheimer’s Collective (DAC).

Supporting it are two medical and academic institutions, the Institute of Global Health and Human Ecology (I-GHHE) at The American University in Cairo (AUC) and UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology at University College London.

Believed to be the first of its kind for the Saharan region, the project will develop a high- dataset to advance understanding and treatment of the genetics for Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related conditions.

DAC executive vice president Vaibhav said the collaboration would improve understanding of a region characterised by “remarkable” genetic diversity.

North Africa’s population now exceeds 200 million with around half the total in Egypt and significant populations in Algeria and Morocco as well as Tunisia and Libya.

“Over time, these insights will inform locally relevant prevention and intervention strategies for communities often overlooked in global research efforts,” added Narayan. 

PacBio vice president and general manager of EMEA Neil Ward commented: “Our long-read sequencing technology is uniquely suited to deliver the high-quality genomic data needed to explore the complex genetic landscape of Alzheimer’s disease.

“This initiative aligns with our commitment to enabling genomic discoveries that improve human health worldwide.”

Autism study shows no link with age-related memory decline: A study prompted by World Health Organisation on prevention of cognitive decline and dementia has found no evidence that autistic people are more at risk of age-related cognitive decline.

Writing in The Gerontologist, UCL and King’s College London researchers reported on the results of data analysis of 10,060 people over the age of 50 in the UK assessed as having autistic traits.

Senior author Dr Gavin Stewart, British Academy postdoctoral research Fellow at KCL Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience said:

“As autistic people can be at greater risk of certain health problems and have cognitive differences to non-autistic people, we need to know whether autistic people will have different patterns of ageing than their non-autistic peers. 

“This study provides some reassuring evidence that some aspects of cognition change similarly in autistic and non-autistic populations.”

Corresponding author professor Joshua Stott of UCL psychology & language sciences acknowledged it was known that autistic people frequently have cognitive differences with neurotypical peers. 

However, he said previous research based on healthcare records indicating possible higher dementia rates in older adults with autism were hindered by the very low diagnostic rate of autism in that age group.

In addition, studies tended to focus on subsamples of autistic people more likely to have healthcare issues to which could be attributed a greater risk of dementia, or else looked at a single time point without tracking changes over time.

Pic: Shutterstock (Matyas Rehak)