AD in the eye

Summary Alzheimer's Disease ( AD ) is the most common form of dementia, however, diagnosis of this condition typically occurs late in the disease process and can only be confirmed post‐mortem. Late diagnosis of AD is problematic as considerable damage to the brain has already occurred by the time symptoms present. Timely diagnosis would therefore serve to create a window of opportunity for novel therapeutics designed to slow or prevent AD progression. The retina presents the only portion of the CNS that can presently be readily and non‐invasively imaged at the single cell resolution owing to the optically transparent nature of the eye. Visual defects have long been reported in AD patients and there are growing reports that histopathological changes in the brain can also be observed in the retina. This talk outlines recent developments in our understanding of potential retinal manifestations of AD with a view to using these findings to develop novel retinal based diagnostics.