Fifty-five thousand Nevadans live with Alzheimer's disease. Another 87,000 people in the state provide unpaid care to someone with memory loss. For these Nevadans, the disease was essentially untreatable until a drug boom in the 1990s.
Since the arrival of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in 2009 — and medical research advances there and at other institutions — Las Vegas has become somewhat of an epicenter for research into the disease.
The newest of these semi-local developments is the Lumipulse G pTau 217/β-Amyloid 1-42 Plasma Ratio diagnostic test, which is the first test of its kind to diagnose Alzheimer's via blood samples. UNLV's Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine contributed research to the test, which the FDA approved last year.
Jefferson Kinney, the founding chair of the UNLV Med School's Department of Brain Health, provided one of his datasets to the study. He said that years of previous developments in diagnostic technology allowed him and his team to contribute to making the new test a reality.
He said the new "platforms and capabilities are sensitive enough to really detect the really small amounts [of Tau and Amyloid markers] that are leaking out of the central nervous system, out of the brain, that indicate the disease."
Because Lumipulse is both more accessible than traditional Alzheimer's screening tools and can detect small amounts of the relevant markers, Kinney hopes this leads to earlier diagnosis and treatment.
The number of people that can be tested should now increase dramatically, he said, "and it changes the landscape of when you screen for the disease."
Because of these advances, memory care nonprofits have found Las Vegas to be an apt place to host conferences and conventions. Organizations doing so include the Alzheimer's Foundation of America, which visited Las Vegas on April 15 for its Educating Across America Tour.
Nancy Nelson and Kat Hartley, cofounders of the Dangle & Dot outreach project, spoke at the conference. One of their chosen topics was "living well despite dementia" — which is also the subject of their community advocacy.
"The real task is to figure out how you're going to take care of yourself and your loved one at the same time. And it becomes an art. It becomes a practice. It becomes learning," said Hartley, who has lost eight of her own family members to various forms of dementia. "You have to acknowledge the tough emotions that you're experiencing. And I'm never saying push those aside — we really have to allow them to come up."
Nelson, who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's 13 years ago, said her story resonates with people, whether it's through her poetry collection, Blue. River. Apple., or on stage at events like the AFA's conference.
"There's not enough of us out there that can speak," she said. "I mean, how many people are not touched by this?"
Guests: Katurah “Kat” Hartley, pharmacist; brain health consultant; co-founder, dangle & dot; Jefferson Kinney, founding chair, UNLV Department of Brain Health at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine; Nancy Nelson, poet, Blue. River. Apple.; co-founder, dangle & dot
