Alzheimer's disease today is it due to DDT yesterday?

DDT , an insecticide widely used until the 1970s , could increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease . This is certainly the result of a U.S. small study . Remains whether this link will be confirmed on a larger scale .
After the end of the war , DDT was widely used in agriculture. However , doubts have gradually begun to surface about its impact on the environment and on health. In 1962 , biologist and author Rachel Carson published the book Silent Spring ( Silent Spring ), which opposes the destructive effects of insecticides , especially DDT , fauna and flora. She won a great success and caused an awareness of the public. The scientific community follows the movement and gradually shows the dangers of pesticide. Doubts are growing and DDT was banned in most developed countries since the 1970s . He however was not until 1984 that the UK follow and not too out of the market . Today , DDT is still used in some parts of the world to defeat the deadly disease -carrying mosquitoes .
Four times more DDE in the blood of Alzheimer patients

DDT has not yet finished talking to him. In a new study , published in the journal Neurology Jama , a team of the Johnson Medical School in Piscataway (USA ) focused on the link between DDT exposure and the onset of Alzheimer's, whose causes are still mysterious . Their results criminalize the insecticide in the development of this neurodegenerative disease. Thus, after Parkinson , DDT increase the risk of Alzheimer .

In reaching this conclusion, the researchers compared blood samples from 86 patients with Alzheimer's disease with those of 79 healthy people. Specifically , they have measured the rate dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene ( DDE ) , a compound from the metabolism of DDT which is stable for many years in the body. Their results are chilling : blood levels of DDE is almost four times higher among patients. "This study is among the first to identify a link between pesticides and Alzheimer's disease," said Alan Levey, one of the study participants .
DDT cause of senile plaques ?

To confirm these data , the authors examined the brains of 11 patients who died of Alzheimer's disease. Same thing: they had a high concentration of DDE in both the nervous system and blood . Finally, by exposing cells to DDT or DDE , the researchers observed an increase in the production of beta-amyloid , the head of the formation of senile plaques found in abundance in people with Alzheimer's protein.

According to the authors , the results suggest that DDT has contributed to the onset of Alzheimer's disease, probably in combination with other genetic factors. They also noticed that the candidates experience carrying mutations at risk had the most pronounced symptoms. However, many experts are cautious and want to believe that larger studies are needed to definitively conclude a link between DDT and Alzheimer's. " If the connection is confirmed, the DDE could be used to quickly diagnose the disease , says Jason Richardson , the lead author of this work. This is important because the more it is detected early , the more care the patient will be effective. "