People with this hereditary blood disease have a more advanced cerebral age than expected, which suggests insufficient brain development, premature cerebral aging or both.
- Drépanocytosis is a disease due to an abnormality of hemoglobin, a protein present inside red blood cells.
- In a study, sickle cell patients have a brain that seems an average of 14 years older than their real age.
- People who find it difficult to provide for their basic needs, even in the absence of this genetic disease, also have an older brain, more precisely 7 years.
Particularly frequent in people of African, West Indian origin and certain parts of the Indian subcontinent, sickle cell anemia, also called “falciform anemia”, is a genetic pathology due to the production of abnormal hemoglobin (HB), called HBS, which causes The deformation of the red blood cells which become fragile and rigid. Previously, this disease and socioeconomic status were both associated with an alteration of the brain structure and a cognitive handicap. Nevertheless, “The mechanisms underlying these associations are not clear”. This is why researchers from the University of Washington in Saint-Louis (United States) carried out a study published in the journal Jama Network Open.
Drépanocytose: 14 years older for the brain of patients
As part of research, the team recruited 230 young adults, including 123 suffering from sickle cell anemia. Participants did an MRI and a cognitive evaluation. Scientists then calculated the brain age of each person using a brain age prediction tool developed from brain scanners made from a group of more than 14,000 people in good health of age of age of age known. The estimated brain age has been compared to the real age of the patient. Data has shown that people with sickle cell anemia had a brain that seemed an average of 14 years older than their real age. They also obtained low results from cognitive tests.
“The more serious economic deprivation,” the more the brain gap widen
Another observation: socioeconomic status was linked to brain age. On average, a seven -year gap was found between the brain age and the real age of volunteers in young healthy adults living in poverty. “The more serious economic deprivation, the more the brain of these participants seemed old. (…) Thus, falciform anemia and economic deprivation could have an impact on brain development and/or aging, which affects at the end of account the mental processes involved in reflection, memory and problem solving, among others.
