Traces of Alzheimer's detected in some animal species.

[Catherine]

Alzheimer's can be very hard to detect at first and it was not behavior, but autopsy results that showed brain changes consistent with Alzheimer's. Right now it is chimps and dolphins that have been looked at. In some brains there were signs of the changes we see in human brains of confirmed Alzheimer's patients.

This opens up the whole research to new areas of study. The dolphins and chimps have been exposed to very different things from each other and from the humans with Alzheimer's. This could have a positive effect on research. It could also be an excuse to abuse animals in the name of research.

https://gizmodo.com/traces-of-alzheimer-...1819769344

I am sure there will be some abuses, but I like to think that some sensible researchers will find a way to use animal data without injuring animals. If there are other species with Alzheimer's we should be looking very closely at what do we have in common with these animals. We could study DNA from samples from living donors and see if there is a genetic link. Maybe there is an environmental factor we are still missing.
However this works out this is very big news. We did always think of Alzheimer's as our problem. Now we know we are not alone with it.