{"id":577,"date":"2025-08-15T20:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T20:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/577\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T20:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T20:33:07","slug":"can-cats-with-dementia-offer-people-with-alzheimers-disease-new-hope-yes-study-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/577\/","title":{"rendered":"Can cats with dementia offer people with Alzheimer\u2019s disease new hope? Yes, study says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Cats can develop dementia similarly to humans with Alzheimer\u2019s disease, say scientists \u2013 a discovery that is leading to hopes of a breakthrough in research.<\/p>\n<p>A team at Scotland\u2019s University of Edinburgh have carried out a series of postmortem brain examinations on 25 cats that had, when they were alive, exhibited symptoms of dementia \u2013 like confusion, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3224568\/can-lack-sleep-raise-dementia-risk-yes-studies-say-one-exception?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">sleep disruption<\/a> and an increase in vocalisation \u2013 in a bid to explore better treatments for humans.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Researchers of Alzheimer\u2019s have previously studied genetically modified rodents, which do not naturally suffer from dementia.<\/p>\n<p>A <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3233304\/unravelling-two-alzheimers-markers-what-are-amyloid-plaques-and-tau-tangles-how-do-they-form-and?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">build-up of amyloid-beta, a toxic protein, was found<\/a> in the synapses of feline dementia brains. As this build-up is one of the defining features of Alzheimer\u2019s disease, this was hailed as a \u201cperfect natural model for Alzheimer\u2019s\u201d by scientists who worked on it.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A build-up of amyloid-beta, a toxic protein, is one of the defining features of Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Photo: Shutterstock\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/817c7066-60ac-473f-84d0-9cdd4fc0fcf3_b64fc413.jpg\" title=\"A build-up of amyloid-beta, a toxic protein, is one of the defining features of Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Photo: Shutterstock\"\/>A build-up of amyloid-beta, a toxic protein, is one of the defining features of Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Photo: Shutterstock<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Scientists hope that these findings will result in a clearer idea of how amyloid-beta may lead to feline cognitive dysfunction and memory loss, as well as offer a valuable model for studying dementia in people.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Synapses allow the flow of messages between brain cells. Losing these causes a reduction in memory and thinking ability in humans with Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cats can develop dementia similarly to humans with Alzheimer\u2019s disease, say scientists \u2013 a discovery that is leading&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[869,872,871,880,868,18,877,870,135,19,876,17,875,878,874,873,879],"class_list":{"0":"post-577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-alzheimers-disease","9":"tag-amyloid-beta","10":"tag-cat-health","11":"tag-cats","12":"tag-dementia","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-facebook","15":"tag-feline-dementia","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-instagram","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-royal-dick-school-of-veterinary-studies","21":"tag-scmp-lifestyle","22":"tag-sleep-disruption","23":"tag-university-of-edinburgh","24":"tag-x"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}