First brain autopsy study in S. Asia by team from University of Sri Jayawardenapura:

Lankan natural products mitigate dementia

By Carol Aloysius

Dementia in old age is a growing healthcare challenge worldwide. The mental and behavioural changes happen so gradually in a sufferer, you’re left to watch your loved one slowly deteriorate before your eyes and you grieve every time they take a turn for the worse, until eventually they can’t even remember their own names.

One new case of dementia is diagnosed every 4 seconds around the world. That tells you the sheer scope of this brutal disorder and how many lives are being affected. Estimation of the number of people with dementia is 46.8 million worldwide in 2015, 74.7 in 2030, 131.5 million in 2050, the annual cost for dementia is US$ 818 billion in 2015 worldwide, it is estimated to be 1 trillion US$ by 2018 and 2 trillion US$ by 2030, will be the 18th largest economy of the world exceeding market values of APPLE and GOOGLE , prevalence of age-related dementia is projected to increase at an even a faster rate in developing countries, or low and/or middle-income countries (LMICs).

Sri Lanka is continuously experiencing fastest ageing in South Asia.

With no known curative measures for the devastating diseases Prof. Ranil de Silva, the Director, Interdisciplinary Center for Innovation in Biotechnology & Neuroscience, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura with a team of local and international (India, Netherlands, Australia, Korea) doctors investigated autopsy aging brain samples from Sri Lanka and India, being the first direct comparative study between Sri Lankan and India and the first ever brain autopsy study undertaken in South Asia that was intended to explore the vascular risk factors and cerebrovascular pathologies associated with Alzheimer disease AD-related neuropathological changes, since identification of such factors and pathologies may offer new insights into diagnosis and/or early intervention.

The work was a result of the PhD thesis of Dr. Printha Wijesinghe (PhD) under the supervision of Prof. Ranil de Silva, published in 2016 in prestigious international Journals: Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, is ranked 68th out of 256 journals in Neurosciences in Current Alzheimer Research is ranked as the 34th of 192 in Clinical Neurology and 69th of 252 in Neurosciences

In an interview with the Sunday Observer he said, “Our findings indicate that the burden of AD-related pathology in India and Sri Lanka was similar to that of the West and highlighted the protective effects of consumption of black tea and green-yellow vegetables in the dementia pathology of aging. It further confirms the strong contribution of hypertension and diabetes in AD-related changes, and urge prompt action be taken against aforesaid risk factors possibly via therapeutic agents that contains both anti-amyloidogenic and anti-atherosclerotic properties as a preventative strategy for subsequent neurodegenerative disease.”

Prof. De Silva is the Director. Interdisciplinary Center for Innovation in Biotechnology & Neuroscience and Principal Invstigator ,Genetic Diagnostic & Researcyh Laboratory and Human Brain Tissue and DNA Repository.

He can be contacted at the Dept. of Anatomy, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayawardenepura , Kotte.