Alzheimer's disease (AD) is often related to people of old age; and while there are some special cases, they do not happen to teens. However, a recent incident in China showed how a person as young as 19 years old had the disease.
Youngest Alzheimer's Case
According to Science Alert, the case can be considered the youngest person recorded to have Alzheimer's disease. The male teenager, aged 19, experienced what neorologists believed to be the actual disease, despite his young age.
The teenager came from Chian, where neurologists at a memory clinic said that the teenager had Alzheimer's disease. The teen first expereinced symptoms of the disease when he was only 17 when he started experiencing a decline in memory.
From 17 onward, the teenager started experiencing worse cognitive losses. This makes him the youngest person worldwide to ever have Alzheimer's, which is often thought of as an ailment for old people.
Alzheimer's Disease
Most people that experience AD are often 65 years old and up. However, there are rare cases where people younger than this age also show symptoms of the ailment but compared to all the diagnoses, they only make up 10%.
The ALZForum explains how it's possible for people under 30 to experience the ailment but in this case, they were categorized under the familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD). For younger people, it would be more likely for them to receive a diagnosis caused by an inherited faulty gene.
Science Alert reports that the interesting thing about the boy's case was that they weren't able to find any of the usual mutations attributed to early memory loss. They also highlighted how they performed a genome-wide search but were unable to come up with any suspected genes.
PSEN1 Gene Mutation
Before the incident in China, which resulted in the youngest person to have the disease being just 19, the previous record was 21 years old, according to Europe PMC. In that case, a gene mutation known as teh PSEN1 was spotted.
The PSEN1 mutation is known to cause abnormal build ups in protein. These buildups are found in one's brain, and they create toxic plaques stacked in clumps.
These plaques are common features that people can find in AD. The 19-year-old's case remains a mystery since it was difficult to categorize as FAD.
Mystery of the Case
What makes the case even more interesting was that the teenager displayed no other infections, diseases, or had any head trauma. There was no explanation as to why he experienced sudden cognitive decline.
The teen had to drop out of high school and couldn't finish becasue he was no longer able to focus in class. Although it was thought that he could live independently, his full-scale memory score compared to his peers was 82% lower.
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