Accurately predicting who’s at risk to develop Alzheimer’s disease may now be easier, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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NPTX2 is the abbreviation for a protein found in the brain that may allow much more accurate prognosis of who’s at risk for developing neurocognitive disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. That’s according to Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Paul Worley, one of the investigators in several new studies on NPTX2.

Worley: The excitement is that we know a lot about what it means, what it does and what it means as far as the process that's going on in the brain. Changes in the level of this protein relative to another synaptic protein can anticipate the onset by 20 years so it's way before or any of the other hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease for example.   :26

Worley says what NPTX2 does is help with memory consolidation, so experiences and knowledge our brains are processing while we sleep depend on it. Lowering levels of NPTX2 are seen both in humans and animal models of developing neurocognitive disorders. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.