Subtle brain changes in young lead to Alzheimer’s disease decades later

Scientists have identified subtle brain changes in young people which mean they will develop Alzheimer’s disease more than 20 years into the future.

The changes to the brain and increased level of protein in the spinal fluids were detected in people who had a gene mutation that causes a rare form of the disease at a young age.

That mutation meant the patients would develop Alzheimer’s as early as when they are in their 40s. The symptoms of the disease are not normally apparent until as late as a person’s 70s.