New ‘breakthrough’ blood test can detect signs of Alzheimer’s – stopping the illness in its tracks
A NEW simple blood test could detect signs of Alzheimer’s – stopping the illness in its tracks, scientists have found.
Experts looked at distinct markers of the debilitating illness.
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, with 50–75 per cent of those with dementia having this form of the illness in the UK, the Alzheimer’s Society states.
In the US it’s estimated around 6million Americans have the condition, the Alzheimer’s Association states.
Writing in the journal Brain, medics said the new breakthough test could pick out an abnormal buildup of plaque in the brain.
They could also detect neurodegeneration, which is the gradual process whereby nerve cells can lose function and die.
“A blood test is cheaper, safer and easier to administer, and it can improve clinical confidence in diagnosing Alzheimer’s and selecting participants for clinical trial and disease monitoring,” Dr Thomas Karikari, senior author and psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh said.
At present, diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease requires neuroimaging, Dr Karikari said.
He explained that these tests are hard to come by, stating that accessibility is a ‘major issue’.
The new tests would focus on a protein called ‘brain-derived tau’ (BD-tau).
This is not usually detectable but is linked to Alzheimer’s.
During tests, levels of BD-tau in the blood matched samples from patients in a cerebrospinal fluid sample, the medics said.
The experts said this allowed them to distinguish Alzheimer’s from other dementias and Parkinson’s.
What are the symptoms of Alzheimer's you need to know
The NHS says that the first sign of Alzheimer's is usually minor memory problems.
Official guidance states you might also experience the following:
- confusion, disorientation and getting lost in familiar places
- difficulty planning or making decisions
- problems with speech and language
- problems moving around without assistance or performing self-care tasks
- personality changes, such as becoming aggressive, demanding and suspicious of others
- hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that are not there) and delusions (believing things that are untrue)
- low mood or anxiety
Elevated levels of BD-tau in the blood also corresponded with the severity of amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the brain, the experts found.
They said that this proved the proteins can be a reliable gauge for neurological illness.
“The most important utility of blood biomarkers is to make people’s lives better and to improve clinical confidence and risk prediction in Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis,” Dr Karikari added.
The hopes of a new blood test come after breakthrough trials revealed medics might be closer than ever to a cure.
In September, scientists proved for the first time that they can tackle it using a drug designed to clear damaging protein clumps from the brain.
The drug, named Lecanemab, reduced progression of dementia by 27 per cent over 18 months.
It is the first proof that using drugs to clear the clumps — made up of a protein named amyloid — can slow the disease.
Although this is not a cure, the discovery gives a huge boost to hopes for future treatments.