Alzheimer’s disease can be identified at an early stage by a new blood test which measures the relative amounts of a pathological and a healthy form of amyloid-β in the blood.
Can Painkillers Help Prevent Alzheimer�s Disease?
A daily regimen of the non-prescription NSAID ibuprofen can prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease, revealed study.
A daily regimen of the non-prescription NSAID ibuprofen can prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease, revealed study.
‘A new blood test can detect Alzheimer's disease early before symptoms appear and can identify those at risk. Immuno-infrared sensor, a technology used in the blood test helps measure the distribution of pathological and healthy structures of amyloid-beta.’
The pathological form is a misfolded version of this molecule and known to initiate the formation of toxic plaques in the brain. Toxic amyloid-beta molecules start accumulating in the patients' body 15-20 years before disease onset. In the present study, Gerwert and colleagues from Germany and Sweden addressed whether the blood test would be able to pick up indications of pathological amyloid-beta in very early phases of the disease. The team of researchers first focused on patients in the early, so-called prodromal stages of the disease from the Swedish BioFINDER cohort conducted by Oskar Hanson. They found that the test reliably detected amyloid-beta alterations in the blood of participants with a mild cognitive impairment that also showed abnormal amyloid deposits in brain scans.
In a next step, Gerwert and colleagues investigated if their assay was able to detect blood changes well ahead of disease onset. They used data from the ESTHER cohort study, which Hermann Brenner started in 2000 at DKFZ, comparing blood samples of 65 participants that were later in the follow-up studies diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease with 809 controls. The assay was able to detect signs of the disease on average eight years before diagnosis in individuals without clinical symptoms. It correctly identified those with the disease in almost 70% of the cases, while about 9% of true negative subjects would wrongly be detected as positive. The overall diagnostic accuracy was 86%.
First Case of Alzheimer�s Diagnosed in a HIV-Positive Patient
Chronic HIV infection and amyloid deposition with aging may represent a double-hit to the brain that results in progressive dementia.
Chronic HIV infection and amyloid deposition with aging may represent a double-hit to the brain that results in progressive dementia.
The blood test developed by Gerwert and colleagues uses a technology called immuno-infrared sensor to measure the distribution of pathological and healthy structures of amyloid-beta. The pathological amyloid-beta structure is rich in a sticky, sheet-like folding pattern that makes it prone to aggregation, while the healthy structure is not. The two structures absorb infrared light at a different frequency, allowing the blood test to determine the ratio of healthy to pathological amyloid-beta in the sample.
Advertisement
Risk Factors for Alzheimers Disease
Cognitively normal adults exhibiting atrophy of their temporal lobe or damage to blood vessels in the brain are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
Cognitively normal adults exhibiting atrophy of their temporal lobe or damage to blood vessels in the brain are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
Advertisement
Alzheimer’s disease - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Stages, Types, Prevention, Prognosis & Treatment
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting memory and thinking and making the person increasingly dependent on others.
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting memory and thinking and making the person increasingly dependent on others.
