Cellular Basis for Olfactory Damage in Early Alzheimer's Disease Discovered

Losing the ability to smell your favorite foods could be an early sign of Alzheimer's, a representative dementia disease. The reason for this has been discovered at the cellular level for the first time, bringing us one step closer to developing early diagnostic markers for dementia. A team led by Professor Moon Cheil from the Department of Brain Sciences at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), in collaboration with a team led by Professor Ali Jahanshahian from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, has for the first time identified the cellular-level cause of why the olfactory system is the first to be damaged in early Alzheimer's.