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The method is expected to lead to a breakthrough in fighting the disease.
Approximately 50 million people live with Alzheimer’s disease and, worldwide, it accounts for more than half of all dementia cases.
The degeneration is believed to be due to a build-up of protein in the patient’s brain. Some of these proteins can be detected in blood samples, and tests of their concentration have been used in the study to diagnose the disease several years before the first symptoms appear.
In an article in the journal Nature Aging, the researchers describe how they have developed and validated models of how much risk an individual has of developing the disease. They have analyzed two important proteins in blood samples from more than 550 patients with minor cognitive impairments.
Cheap method
The study showed that with this method they could predict Alzheimer’s disease with 88 percent certainty over a four-year period.
The result is considered promising, especially since the method is easy and inexpensive.
Alzheimer’s Society head of research Richard Oakley says the biggest challenge is being able to diagnose the disease early enough to be able to use experimental treatments.
– If these biomarkers can predict Alzheimer’s in larger and different groups, then we may experience a revolution in the way we test new dementia drugs, he says.
– First time
Musaid Husain, a professor of neurology at the University of Oxford, believes the study could be a breakthrough.
– For the first time, we have a blood test that is good at predicting the risk of later development of Alzheimer’s disease in people who have mild cognitive symptoms, says Husain, who did not contribute to the study.
– We need further validation of the results, but building on other recent findings, this can be a transformative step for earlier diagnoses, as well as being able to test new forms of treatment in earlier stages of the disease, he says.
