- Close Window - - - Print Window -

Gladstone/UCSF Scientists Initiate Asian Collaboration at Groundbreaking Symposium on Alzheimer's Disease in China
	While China is enjoying unprecedented economic growth, it is also facing the unprecedented challenge of caring for a large and rapidly growing aging population. An estimated 12 million people in China currently live with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or some form of age-related dementia.

According to a recent report for Alzheimer's Disease International, the growth of AD and age-related dementia in developing countries including China is accelerating 3-4 times faster than in developed countries. By 2040, the report says, there will be as many people with dementia in China alone as in the whole of the developed world put together. With those devastating statistics in mind, Gladstone's Lennart Mucke and Bruce Miller of the UCSF Memory & Aging Center created the Gladstone/UCSF Asian Brain Health Initiative to collaborate on ways to fight AD and other age-related neurological disorders in China and among the Chinese living in the Bay Area. The initiative began its effort with a groundbreaking symposium held last month in Beijing, China.
Yadong Huang and Fen-Biao Gao were among the organizers of the event in which leading researchers from China and more than 50 Chinese university students joined scientists from Gladstone and UCSF to share information about origins, diagnostics, current treatments, and the latest research. According to Li Gan, the symposium was valuable to both groups of researchers in establishing a dialogue and an understanding of the cultural
challenges China faces in coping with this disease. “While I was impressed at the quality of studies presented by each speaker, a study conducted by Zhen-Xin Zhang of Peking Union Medical College demonstrated the difficulties in tracking the prevalence of dementia in such a large and diverse country as China,” Li said. Dr. Zhang has been studying not only the frequency of dementia in the Chinese population, but also the social factors involved in diagnosing and treating the disease. “She personally has gone into extremely poor and remote villages to interview dementia patients and their families,” Li said. “She was reporting for her study as well as educating the people in these villages about the signs of dementia.” Li said that currently less than 10% of dementia patients in China have access to standard treatment. “It's a large and growing problem with a long way to go,” she said.