Could an estrogen patch cut Alzheimer’s risk among newly postmenopausal women?
According to new findings from researchers at the Mayo Clinic, it could be. The team used data from the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study, which looked at healthy and younger women’s reaction to menopausal hormone therapy, to explore the therapy’s effects five to 36 months after menopause, when estrogen loss is swift.
They found that women who wore estrogen patches had fewer deposits of beta-amyloid, the plaque found in brains damaged by Alzheimer’s disease, according to findings published this month in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
The researchers used positron emission tomography, which are also called PET scans, to look at amyloid deposition in the brains of 68 women between the ages of 42 to 59.
Twenty-one women were given a skin patch with estrogen, 17 ingested estrogen and 30 got a placebo. The patch proved more effective than the placebo, yielding a lower rate of amyloid deposition.
Specifically, women who had the APOE e4 gene — which is linked to late-onset Alzheimer’s — saw lower amyloid deposit levels, according to the study.
The findings suggest that the patch could lessen women’s Alzheimer’s disease risk. The research team plans to confirm their findings by doing more PET imaging at eight Kronos early estrogen prevention study locations.
“If our results are confirmed in the larger group of women, this finding has the potential to change the concepts for preventive interventions that drive the Alzheimer’s disease field today,” Dr. Kejal Kantarci, a radiologist at the Mayo Clinic, said in a press release. “It also may have a significant impact on women making the decision to use hormone therapy in the early postmenopausal years.”
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Estrogen Patch Could Reduce Alzheimer?s Risk originally appeared on usnews.com
