Research from Lund University has found that Alzheimer's disease progresses faster in women than in men. The study reveals that protein tau accumulates at a higher rate in women. Tau and beta-amyloid are two proteins known to aggregate and accumulate in the brain in patients with Alzheimer's. The first protein to aggregate in Alzheimer's is beta-amyloid.
While men and women are equally affected by the first disease stages, the analysis did not show any differences in the accumulation of beta-amyloid. Memory dysfunction rises later when tau starts to accumulate. It was for tau that the researchers found a higher rate of accumulation in women.
Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, with over 30 million people suffering from it. Author of the study, Ruben Smith was quoted by media reports as saying, “Tau accumulation rates vary greatly between individuals of the same sex, but in the temporal lobe, which is affected in Alzheimer's disease, we found a 75 per cent higher accumulation rate in women as a group compared to men.”
The accumulation rate of tau is higher in women even after adjusting for age and the levels of tau they had at the beginning. Together with data from three similar cohorts in the USA, the project contains 209 women and 210 men.
Researcher responsible for the cognitive assessment of the patients, Sebastian Palmqvist was quoted as saying, “The next step would be to examine why this accumulation is faster in women.” Reasons for the higher rate of tau accumulation in women was not investigated. Professor Oskar Hansson said, “Our study strongly indicates that the faster spread of tau makes women more prone to develop dementia because of Alzheimer's pathology compared to men. Future experimental studies will be important to understand the reasons behind this.”
