Jackson Lab explores eye imaging to detect Alzheimer’s disease

BAR HARBOR, Maine (WABI) - Researchers at Jackson Lab are working on a biomarker test that uses eye imaging to detect Alzheimer’s disease.

The test would examine the retina for signs of the disease. Gareth Howell, principal investigator at Jackson Lab, said the retina offers a unique window into brain health.

“The reason the retina is a really great place to look is because it’s essentially a piece of the brain that is sticking outside of the skull. It’s the same tissue. We call it neural tissue,” Howell said.

Retinal imaging can be as simple as an eye exam, while an MRI of the brain can be costly and difficult to access.

Blood vessel changes linked to Alzheimer’s

Howell said blood vessel deficits appear in as many as 80% of Alzheimer’s disease cases.

“In maybe as many as 80% of cases of Alzheimer’s disease, you see blood vessel deficit of some kind, whether that be in the flow of the blood heading to that nerve cell, for instance. And so it’s those markers that we’re really trying to now work out. How can we visualize those? How do we find biomarkers for vessel health?” Howell said.

Jackson Lab has been studying this method for about a decade. Howell said the imaging could identify vascular changes before patients show symptoms.

“One of the challenges of this research is to actually see if we can determine early stages of dementia in a background of what might be early stages of an eye disease like glaucoma or age related macular degeneration or even diabetic retinopathy,” Howell said.

Mouse studies support human research

Howell said changes are hard to decipher in studies on people, so researchers are combining human studies with mouse studies.

“So that’s why we’re actually particularly excited to combine our human studies with our mouse studies. Because using mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, we can actually carefully uncover a particular disease state and whether it impacts the eye and brain at the same time or at different times,” Howell said.

He said the goal is to identify individuals most at risk of cognitive decline.

“What we’re really trying to do is to identify the group of individuals that are most at risk of getting the parts of the Alzheimer’s disease that we care about the most — which is ultimately cognitive decline. We want to stop cognitive decline,” Howell said.

Jackson Lab is looking for more than 800 people to take part in its retinal vasculature study on tracking the early stages of dementia. The study will involve blood tests, eye tests and cognitive exams.

For more information on the study including an application to be a part of it, click here for the Maine Initiative for Neurologic Aging and Health or MAINAH page.