[Music]
ad as Imus disease each time I give this
diagnosis to one of my patients I feel
like I’m giving them a death sentence
I’m sorry sir you will progressively
forget everything everything you do
everything you’ve done all the ones
you’ve loved and this is horrible but
what is Alzheimer’s disease exactly how
does this start by forgetting your keys
by not remembering the name of the
previous speaker or not knowing tomorrow
that you’ve come here today to this
wonderful TEDx event as a doctor I would
say this is the most serious Simas
disease is characterized by an episodic
memory loss forgetting the episodes of
your life the recent events you just
left but you can forget for many other
reasons than as I MERS so it’s not only
a memory loss as Eimer
is a brain disease but the thing is that
until very recently we could not see
this disease in the brain during life
and new imaging techniques now allow
seeing Al’s Imus regions in vivo and
this brings a lot of hope to find a cure
for this terrible infection so hoping to
find a cure three years ago I quit my
doctor’s job and I went to Harvard
University to do research
so instead of giving diagnoses like a
judge give sentences I became a
scientist looking for answers kind of a
detective and that is the adventure I’d
like to take you on today because now is
the time for even more research but let
me start by giving you some background
about Alzheimer’s disease here is the
very first patient diagnosed by dr. Hans
Zimmer with what I call to the time the
dementia of forgetfulness dementia comes
from latin d mention literally losing
your mind losing what makes you human
a lot of diseases can cause dementia a
brain tumor
for instance Al’s i’ma starts with
forgetfulness a memory loss that
progressively evolved to dementia a
stage at which you are no longer able to
care for yourself that is the stage
everybody is afraid of and we have very
good reasons to be afraid no treatment
and it seems unavoidable
the two main risks for Alzheimer’s our
age and genetics sorry madam I can’t
change your genes and whatever we do we
all getting older this just seems
hopeless the thing why not trying
research maybe if we understand better
what’s happening in the brain we can fix
it like hair could borrow would
elucidate a murder in Agoura Christi
let’s try to understand how why and what
an Alzheimer skills or minds but above
all what could we do to prevent this
murder doctor Alzheimer’s paved the way
by giving a description of the brain
pathology after his first patient died
he performed the brain atop C and
identified two lesions which together
define Alzheimer’s disease these two
lesions are amyloid plaques and two
tangles
sounds complicated but this too after
the Greek letter with that name and
amoled are still today a century later
the two main suspects in alzhiemer’s
disease but if a doctor can’t see them
he can never be sure
someone has Alzheimer’s early detection
and Prevention I’m possible then however
we learned a lot from these of top C
studies and the most important thing we
have learned is that amyloid plaques are
not only present in the brain of
patients with Alzheimer’s dementia but
also in normal individuals like you and
me and the older we get the more common
it becomes at the age of 35 years old a
third of us has amyloid pathology in our
brain but wait a minute should we care
about this is that Alzheimer’s disease
having amyloid in the brain but a normal
memory I think we should care about this
because if we look at the risk for exam
as dementia we see a similar curve 15
years later at the age of 90 years old
it is a third of us who will suffer from
Alzheimer’s dementia we should try to do
something about this and I think these
15 years during which pathology slowly
builds up but memory symptoms are not
present yet our wonderful opportunity
for who wants to prevent the disease
from occurring catching the killer
before murder is committed
brain uh Topsy that’s quite a late stage
for doing this so the first breakthrough
I’d like to mention to you is amulet
imaging for the past ten years now we’ve
been able to perform a scan and
visualize amyloid in the brain – in life
hidden red on the scan and we could
confirm that at the age of 75 a third of
us have a positive scan for amulet the
big lesson here is that this complicated
thing named amulet is not important for
memory right now but it has a drastic
impact on how memory will evolve in the
future so what’s happening
how can someone have a head full of
amyloid his memories working fine and
then suddenly he becomes demented what’s
new I think that the second lesion in as
Amos has now come into play now
pathology so the pathology is strongly
correlated with memory in individuals
who had a normal memory during life only
future pathology is observed at the top
see what you can see here on the left in
brown but for individuals who had mild
cognitive impairment at the end of their
life
we observed motor pathology and an
expanded to pathology all over the brain
is almost always associated with
dementia so emulate might be the first
culprit in Alzheimer’s disease but do
seems closer to the symptoms the Opeth
ology starts accumulating in the brain
region that is the most important for
memory and the morte accumulates the
more memory declines so let me share to
you my current understanding of
Alzheimer’s disease and compare this to
the three steps of a
murder first someone wishes you’d that
and actually that might happen more
often than you think but it doesn’t
necessarily mean you will die this is a
me looat building up in the brain that
is actually quite frequent with age it
doesn’t necessarily mean you will have
dementia but for sure that increases the
risk if you have no amulet no Alzheimer
if no one wishes you dead you won’t die
from a murder but in the second step the
one who wishes you dad actually contacts
a killer and that’s what becomes more
serious because he asked him to prepare
the murder and that is a merit
increasing to pathology no memory
symptoms yet but soon the patient will
come and see his doctor because he has
noticed some memory loss and bam he
receives a death sentence he learns he
has Alzheimer’s disease and very little
can be done to save him many brain
regions have been destroyed by a
militant to and repairing the brain
would be as difficult as resuscitating
someone after murder what we should do
is prevention preventing a melittin –
from destroying the brain but that was
not quite possible if we could not see
these lesions during life and it is only
three years ago then two scans we
developed in Harvard University and this
invention two scans is probably a
turning point in Alzheimer’s research
because now we have the technical
capability of observing both amulet and
– because now we have the two main
suspects in custody
and we can question
so I went to Harvard to learn more about
it and the first two scans confirmed
what we knew from a Topsy – is really
bad for your memory if you have a lot of
– pathology in your brain you’re
probably going to be demented
in contrast emulate increase very early
at a time when memory is still normal
and it can stay normal for many years
despite a meal of it and that is the
point we should try to prevent
Alzheimer’s over the past 20 years
95% of clinical trials in Alzheimer’s
disease have failed but we were looking
in the dark we could not verify newman’s
if a drug was effective or not
except in a very long trial we were
waiting for cognitive decline basically
we needed the murder to happen to
identify the murderer no prevention was
possible but now that both amulet and
tool scans have been developed we can
start thinking of prevention therapies
so now that we understand a little bit
better how this plot is built now that
we understand better Alzheimer’s disease
let’s imagine strategies to fix it
who do you want to see in jail the one
who wished you that or the killer I
would say both of them but actually
stopping one might be enough to prevent
the murder so far many clinical trials
have intended to remove amyloid from the
brain and they were not quite successful
but one of the potential reasons is that
this trial included patients with
dementia a stage that might be too late
to be effective
so currently a very large American trial
is giving anti-amyloid drug to normal
individuals who are older than 65 and F
evidence of Pama late on a scan and we
should have the results of this very
first preventive trial in three years
from now but we should probably also
follow other tracks like drugs against
to pathology stopping the killer might
be the most effective way to stay alive
and to share a personal conviction I
think we’re still missing a very
important piece in Alzheimer’s disease
who is the messenger how do you amyl it
until interact actually no one really
knows but now we have the tools to
investigate these questions we can look
for answers and that is a game changer
the research we will conduct today will
help us not only to live longer but also
in a better mental health however we
need to hurry if you want to catch these
criminals if you want to avoid the
serial killing predicted by global aging
if we do nothing we all gotta have
Alzheimer’s once we have been cured from
cardiovascular disease and cancer so
let’s take together in this fight and
make aging fun again this detective
story can have a happy ending over the
past few months I resumed the memory
clinics every Wednesday in Brussels and
I’m still doing research but now with
this increased knowledge I can reassure
my patients and their families they’re
not crazy their memory symptoms have a
biological explanation and you also know
why now
and we can do more research to
understand this better and try to fix it
and this hope is really important for
the patients with the disease but also
for you and me who might have the
disease in the future my deepest wish is
to see a prevention for Alzheimer’s
disease as soon as possible and if we
all fight for this I am sure we can do
it
thank you for supporting research
[Music]
you
ad as Imus disease each time I give this
diagnosis to one of my patients I feel
like I’m giving them a death sentence
I’m sorry sir you will progressively
forget everything everything you do
everything you’ve done all the ones
you’ve loved and this is horrible but
what is Alzheimer’s disease exactly how
does this start by forgetting your keys
by not remembering the name of the
previous speaker or not knowing tomorrow
that you’ve come here today to this
wonderful TEDx event as a doctor I would
say this is the most serious Simas
disease is characterized by an episodic
memory loss forgetting the episodes of
your life the recent events you just
left but you can forget for many other
reasons than as I MERS so it’s not only
a memory loss as Eimer
is a brain disease but the thing is that
until very recently we could not see
this disease in the brain during life
and new imaging techniques now allow
seeing Al’s Imus regions in vivo and
this brings a lot of hope to find a cure
for this terrible infection so hoping to
find a cure three years ago I quit my
doctor’s job and I went to Harvard
University to do research
so instead of giving diagnoses like a
judge give sentences I became a
scientist looking for answers kind of a
detective and that is the adventure I’d
like to take you on today because now is
the time for even more research but let
me start by giving you some background
about Alzheimer’s disease here is the
very first patient diagnosed by dr. Hans
Zimmer with what I call to the time the
dementia of forgetfulness dementia comes
from latin d mention literally losing
your mind losing what makes you human
a lot of diseases can cause dementia a
brain tumor
for instance Al’s i’ma starts with
forgetfulness a memory loss that
progressively evolved to dementia a
stage at which you are no longer able to
care for yourself that is the stage
everybody is afraid of and we have very
good reasons to be afraid no treatment
and it seems unavoidable
the two main risks for Alzheimer’s our
age and genetics sorry madam I can’t
change your genes and whatever we do we
all getting older this just seems
hopeless the thing why not trying
research maybe if we understand better
what’s happening in the brain we can fix
it like hair could borrow would
elucidate a murder in Agoura Christi
let’s try to understand how why and what
an Alzheimer skills or minds but above
all what could we do to prevent this
murder doctor Alzheimer’s paved the way
by giving a description of the brain
pathology after his first patient died
he performed the brain atop C and
identified two lesions which together
define Alzheimer’s disease these two
lesions are amyloid plaques and two
tangles
sounds complicated but this too after
the Greek letter with that name and
amoled are still today a century later
the two main suspects in alzhiemer’s
disease but if a doctor can’t see them
he can never be sure
someone has Alzheimer’s early detection
and Prevention I’m possible then however
we learned a lot from these of top C
studies and the most important thing we
have learned is that amyloid plaques are
not only present in the brain of
patients with Alzheimer’s dementia but
also in normal individuals like you and
me and the older we get the more common
it becomes at the age of 35 years old a
third of us has amyloid pathology in our
brain but wait a minute should we care
about this is that Alzheimer’s disease
having amyloid in the brain but a normal
memory I think we should care about this
because if we look at the risk for exam
as dementia we see a similar curve 15
years later at the age of 90 years old
it is a third of us who will suffer from
Alzheimer’s dementia we should try to do
something about this and I think these
15 years during which pathology slowly
builds up but memory symptoms are not
present yet our wonderful opportunity
for who wants to prevent the disease
from occurring catching the killer
before murder is committed
brain uh Topsy that’s quite a late stage
for doing this so the first breakthrough
I’d like to mention to you is amulet
imaging for the past ten years now we’ve
been able to perform a scan and
visualize amyloid in the brain – in life
hidden red on the scan and we could
confirm that at the age of 75 a third of
us have a positive scan for amulet the
big lesson here is that this complicated
thing named amulet is not important for
memory right now but it has a drastic
impact on how memory will evolve in the
future so what’s happening
how can someone have a head full of
amyloid his memories working fine and
then suddenly he becomes demented what’s
new I think that the second lesion in as
Amos has now come into play now
pathology so the pathology is strongly
correlated with memory in individuals
who had a normal memory during life only
future pathology is observed at the top
see what you can see here on the left in
brown but for individuals who had mild
cognitive impairment at the end of their
life
we observed motor pathology and an
expanded to pathology all over the brain
is almost always associated with
dementia so emulate might be the first
culprit in Alzheimer’s disease but do
seems closer to the symptoms the Opeth
ology starts accumulating in the brain
region that is the most important for
memory and the morte accumulates the
more memory declines so let me share to
you my current understanding of
Alzheimer’s disease and compare this to
the three steps of a
murder first someone wishes you’d that
and actually that might happen more
often than you think but it doesn’t
necessarily mean you will die this is a
me looat building up in the brain that
is actually quite frequent with age it
doesn’t necessarily mean you will have
dementia but for sure that increases the
risk if you have no amulet no Alzheimer
if no one wishes you dead you won’t die
from a murder but in the second step the
one who wishes you dad actually contacts
a killer and that’s what becomes more
serious because he asked him to prepare
the murder and that is a merit
increasing to pathology no memory
symptoms yet but soon the patient will
come and see his doctor because he has
noticed some memory loss and bam he
receives a death sentence he learns he
has Alzheimer’s disease and very little
can be done to save him many brain
regions have been destroyed by a
militant to and repairing the brain
would be as difficult as resuscitating
someone after murder what we should do
is prevention preventing a melittin –
from destroying the brain but that was
not quite possible if we could not see
these lesions during life and it is only
three years ago then two scans we
developed in Harvard University and this
invention two scans is probably a
turning point in Alzheimer’s research
because now we have the technical
capability of observing both amulet and
– because now we have the two main
suspects in custody
and we can question
so I went to Harvard to learn more about
it and the first two scans confirmed
what we knew from a Topsy – is really
bad for your memory if you have a lot of
– pathology in your brain you’re
probably going to be demented
in contrast emulate increase very early
at a time when memory is still normal
and it can stay normal for many years
despite a meal of it and that is the
point we should try to prevent
Alzheimer’s over the past 20 years
95% of clinical trials in Alzheimer’s
disease have failed but we were looking
in the dark we could not verify newman’s
if a drug was effective or not
except in a very long trial we were
waiting for cognitive decline basically
we needed the murder to happen to
identify the murderer no prevention was
possible but now that both amulet and
tool scans have been developed we can
start thinking of prevention therapies
so now that we understand a little bit
better how this plot is built now that
we understand better Alzheimer’s disease
let’s imagine strategies to fix it
who do you want to see in jail the one
who wished you that or the killer I
would say both of them but actually
stopping one might be enough to prevent
the murder so far many clinical trials
have intended to remove amyloid from the
brain and they were not quite successful
but one of the potential reasons is that
this trial included patients with
dementia a stage that might be too late
to be effective
so currently a very large American trial
is giving anti-amyloid drug to normal
individuals who are older than 65 and F
evidence of Pama late on a scan and we
should have the results of this very
first preventive trial in three years
from now but we should probably also
follow other tracks like drugs against
to pathology stopping the killer might
be the most effective way to stay alive
and to share a personal conviction I
think we’re still missing a very
important piece in Alzheimer’s disease
who is the messenger how do you amyl it
until interact actually no one really
knows but now we have the tools to
investigate these questions we can look
for answers and that is a game changer
the research we will conduct today will
help us not only to live longer but also
in a better mental health however we
need to hurry if you want to catch these
criminals if you want to avoid the
serial killing predicted by global aging
if we do nothing we all gotta have
Alzheimer’s once we have been cured from
cardiovascular disease and cancer so
let’s take together in this fight and
make aging fun again this detective
story can have a happy ending over the
past few months I resumed the memory
clinics every Wednesday in Brussels and
I’m still doing research but now with
this increased knowledge I can reassure
my patients and their families they’re
not crazy their memory symptoms have a
biological explanation and you also know
why now
and we can do more research to
understand this better and try to fix it
and this hope is really important for
the patients with the disease but also
for you and me who might have the
disease in the future my deepest wish is
to see a prevention for Alzheimer’s
disease as soon as possible and if we
all fight for this I am sure we can do
it
thank you for supporting research
[Music]
you
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