Abstract: The invention relates to a commercial package for determining the concentration of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and/or a nucleotide sequence encoding HO-1 in tissue obtained from a patient, wherein the commercial package is used to predict the onset of, diagnose, or prognosticate a dementing disease. The tissue is suitably plasma, lymphocytes, cerebrospinal fluid or fibroblasts. The commercial package is useful where the dementing disease is any of Alzheimer's Disease, Age-Associated Cognitive Decline, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Vascular (i.e. multi-infarct) Dementia, Lewy Body Dementia, Huntington's Disease, Down's syndrome, normal pressure hydrocephalus, corticobasal ganglionic degeneration, multisystem atrophy, head trauma, Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, viral encephalitis and hypothyroidism.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for predicting the onset of, diagnosing, and/or prognosticating dementing diseases. The method comprises determining the concentration of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and/or a nucleotide sequence encoding HO-1 in tissue obtained from a patient, and comparing said concentration with the corresponding concentration of HO-1 and/or an HO-1 encoding nucleotide sequence in corresponding tissue obtained from at least one control person. The tissue is suitably plasma, lymphocytes, cerebrospinal fluid or fibroblasts. The method is useful where the dementing disease is any of Alzheimer's Disease, Age-Associated Cognitive Decline, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Vascular (i.e. multi-infarct) Dementia, Lewy Body Dementia, Huntington's Disease, Down's syndrome, normal pressure hydrocephalus, corticobasal ganglionic degeneration, multisystem atrophy, head trauma, Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, viral encephalitis and hypothyroidism.