Youth in polluted cities at increased risk of Alzheimer’s

NEW YORK: Children and young adults living in polluted megacities are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s, a debilitating brain disease characterised by memory loss, a new study has warned. “Alzheimer’s disease hallmarks start in childhood in polluted environments, and we must implement preventative measures early,” said one of the researchers Lilian Calderon-Garciduenas from University of Montana in the US. “It is useless to take reactive actions decades later,” Calderon-Garciduenas said. The findings, published in the Journal of Environmental Research, indicate that Alzheimer’s starts in early childhood, and the disease progression relates to age, pollution exposure and status of Apolipoprotein E (APOE 4). The researchers studied 203 autopsies of Mexico City residents in the US ranging in age from 11 months to 40 years. The researchers tracked two abnormal proteins that indicate development of Alzheimer’s, and they detected the early stages of the disease in babies less than a year old. The scientists found heightened levels of the two abnormal proteins — hyperphosphorylated tau and beta amyloid — in the brains of young urbanites with lifetime exposures to fine-particulate-matter pollution (PM2.5). They also tracked APOE 4 as well as lifetime cumulative exposure to unhealthy levels of PM2.5 — particles which are at least 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. — IANS