New Alzheimer’s Blood Test Could Detect Signs of Symptoms Decades Earlier

Researchers have developed a blood test that can detect signs of Alzheimer’s as much as 20 years before the disease begins to have a debilitating effect.

Brain Inflammation from Alzheimer's Disease. Photo: National Institute on Aging/NIH

Researchers say the simple test for the neurodegenerative disease, which has been found to be more than 90 per cent accurate, could be available at GP surgeries “within a few years”.

However, its benefits may be greater once there are treatments to halt Alzheimer’s or prevent its onset entirely.

Up to two decades before people develop the characteristic memory loss and confusion caused by the disease, damaging clumps of protein start to build up in their brains.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in the US said that they can measure levels of the Alzheimer’s protein amyloid beta in the blood and use such levels to predict whether the protein has accumulated in the brain.

When blood amyloid levels are combined with two other major dementias risk factors – age and the presence of the genetic variant APOE4 – people with early Alzheimer’s brain changes can be identified with 94 per cent accuracy.

The research team said that the findings represent another step towards a blood test to identify people likely to develop Alzheimer’s before symptoms arise.

Researchers believe the test may be even more sensitive than the “gold standard” – a PET brain scan – at detecting the beginnings of amyloid deposition in the brain.

Scientists say clinical trials of preventive drug candidates have been hampered by the difficulty of identifying participants who have Alzheimer’s brain changes but no cognitive problems.

The blood test could provide a way to effectively screen for people with early signs of disease so they can participate in clinical trials evaluating whether drugs can prevent the disease.

The study involved 158 adults over the age of 50. All but 10 of the participants were cognitively normal, and each provided at least one blood sample and underwent one PET brain scan.

Researchers classified each blood sample and PET scan as amyloid positive or negative, and found that the blood test from each participant agreed with his or her PET scan 88 per cent of the time.

To improve the test’s accuracy, the researchers incorporated a number of major risk factors for Alzheimer’s, including age and the presence of a genetic variant called APOE4.

When the researchers included age and APOE4 status the accuracy of the blood test rose to 94 per cent. (Tasnim News Agency)

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