Lack of clear and reliable biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease, which can accurately identify individuals with that ailment, is one of the greatest hurdles to treat the disease in its early stage. So it is necessary to develop tests and biomarkers to identify the disease before it is too late, said Dr John C Morris, professor of neurology, Washington University in St Louis.

A biomarker is generally defined as a measure of a biological process or other feature that can be correlated with some aspect of normal body function, an underlying disease process, or a response to a treatment. It will help identify the disease before its actual onset and advances in imaging technology would help us look at changes in the brain process even as they begin, Prof Morris said while delivering the 29th T S Srinivasan Oration on 'The Ageing Brain and Mind'.

He said future research in Alzheimer's disease would clearly focus on biomarkers development and drug therapies that will attack the very progress of the disease. These markers provide a dynamic and powerful approach to understanding the spectrum of neurological disease with applications in observational and analytic epidemiology, randomized clinical trials, screening and diagnosis and prognosis.

Dr Morris further said, currently the approved symptomatic treatment for Alzheimer's disease helps only to a small degree. But a number of compounds are being tested in laboratories as modifying therapies for the disease. He said it is necessary to ensure that these drugs are safe and effective, in the sense that they will interfere with the abnormal process and halt it. The greatest success, of course, would be in being able to prevent the disease, which later becomes dementia (loss of intellectual capacity due to damage to neurons in the brain).

The doctor said factors such as hypertension, obesity, vascular disorders and diabetes, strokes and higher lipid levels put a person at greater risk for Alzheimer's. Dr Morris has recommended some tips based on food and lifestyles to check the progress of the disease.

According to him there is great value in conducting research in India and other developing Asian countries where, he foresees, a huge ageing population in future. He said by 2020, 14 per cent of the people in India will be above 60 years.

The Oration and the Award were sponsored by the T S Srinivasan Charitable Trust through the T S Srinivasan Centre for Clinical Neurosciences and Health Policy.