The Link Between Down Syndrome and Alzheimer’s Disease

Some time ago, I ran across a fascinating YouTube video that featured a young man with Down syndrome named Frank Stephens. Frank was testifying before congress to ask for increased funding for Down syndrome by stressing the value that he and others with Trisomy 21 bring to the world. In the video (you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtS91Jd5mac), Frank says something that I found very interesting: “We are a medical gift to society.” Frank makes this assertion, in part, due to the prevalence of Alzheimer’s Disease found in many adults with Down syndrome. I bookmarked that video, thinking that I might want to go back and revisit it one day. Little did I know I would have cause to do so two weeks later.

It was then that 46-year-old participant Joel Marcel happened to come to GiGi’s Playhouse’s Fantastic Friends on a Friday night that I was attending. Joel asked his mother, Kay, to show me photos from his recent trip to the Waisman Center, which is part of the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Joel, as I learned, was one of more than 500 individuals with Down syndrome that was participating in a study conducted at facilities (like the Waisman Center) across the world. These studies are jointly funded by the National Institute of Health and the National Institute on Aging.

Kay explained to me that the high occurrence of Alzheimer’s in adults with Down syndrome was related to the triplication of the 21st chromosome and that, by age 40, virtually all individuals with Down syndrome have the amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer’s Disease. I was learning, first-hand, what Frank Stephens meant by touting that he and others with Down syndrome add to their value by being “a blueprint for medical research”.

Inspired, I hoped to leverage this new information with local media and get an invitation to share this important story with Central Iowa. I am so thankful that WHO-TV 13 anchor Erin Kiernan and WOI’s Iowa Live program invited us to their studios for an interview to talk about Joel’s participation in this research and the upcoming World Down Syndrome Day that was coming up on March 21st.

There is so much tremendous information to share about this study, and I hope you’ll take the time to watch Kay’s and my interview with Erin Kiernan here: https://who13.com/on-air/seen-on-tv/world-down-syndrome-awareness-day/

Spoiler alert: Joel’s study will likely lead to clinical trials that will result in early identification and treatment of Alzheimer’s!