It soon could be as simple as taking a blood test to learn whether or not you are likely to develop Alzheimer's, a British scientist reports. The new test could help doctors to determine whether an individual is more prone to develop the disease.
The study, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, found that 10 protein markers in the blood appear to be predictive if someone is to develop the debilitating disease or not in the future. It could also help medical professionals understand the disease in the hopes of combatting it early in someone's life.
"We have identified 10 plasma proteins strongly associated with disease severity and disease progression," Simon Lovestone, a neuroscience professor at Oxford University, and his co-authors, said.
Lovestone believes that through more and more clinical trials, a better understanding of the disease can be made as well as helping to implement drug treatments at an earlier stage in the disease's development.
The researchers were also clear that even though the blood markers are there for Alzheimer's, this will not be the case with dementia, meaning a simple blood test will not be able to determine if someone will develop that condition.
"These 10 proteins can predict conversion to dementia with less than 90 per cent accuracy, meaning one in 10 people would get an incorrect result," said James Pickett, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society in the UK. "Accuracy would need to be improved before it could be a useful diagnostic test."
Alzheimer's is a debilitating disease that affects a growing number of the general population, and can result in loss of memory and dementia. It eventually leads to the death of the person with the disease. While efforts to find treatments for the disease have proven less than fruitful, this new finding could help progress research and understanding of Alzheimer's for medical professionals to implement in their patients' treatments.
The study looked at blood samples from people across the UK, Europe and Canada, including around half with Alzheimer's and half elderly controls without dementia. Another few hundred had mild cognitive impairment and this helped in understanding how the disease functions in the blood.
