American scientists have developed a simple blood test that will diagnose Alzheimer’s disease three years before its first symptoms appear.
It is possible that the new method of diagnosis will allow for the creation of an effective therapy that will inhibit the development and maybe even prevent the onset of the disease, scientists predict.
The researchers found that by observing the levels of certain markers in the blood, it is possible to predict with 90% accuracy whether a patient will develop the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease within three years.
The American research results are very encouraging. Organizations researching the disease and helping patients’ families believe that the test will bring significant advances in therapy. At the same time, however, they warn of an important ethical dilemma – in their opinion, patients should be able to decide whether they want to hear potentially devastating information about a disease that will change their future.
At the international conference on dementia in February, Jeremy Hunt, the UK’s Minister of Health, said that developing such a test would be a giant leap forward in the fight against the disease.
Dr. Doug Brown, director of research and development at the British Alzheimer’s Research Society, emphasizes that such a test has been waiting a long time. – This is another step towards improving the lives of thousands of dementia patients.
The authors of the study, the results of which are published in the journal Nature Medicine, have identified 10 blood molecules that make it possible to predict with at least 90% accuracy whether a healthy person will develop Alzheimer’s or other milder cognitive impairment. This is the first study to find differences in blood marker levels in seniors with dementia and their peers who did not develop cognitive impairment.
Today’s medications for Alzheimer’s disease are most effective when treatment is started early enough. Treatment does not slow down the development of the disease, it only alleviates its symptoms.
According to the researchers, the possibility of starting therapy before the patient develops the first symptoms offers hope for a real breakthrough in the treatment and care of people with dementia, which will slow down or even stop the development of the disease.
Professor Howard Federoff, one of the authors of the study, explains that the ability to detect a disease early enough, before its symptoms appear, opens up a window of opportunity of great importance for research into new, more effective forms of therapy.
Researchers estimate that their discovery is an important step towards the development of a widely available screening method that will allow you to recognize the risk in advance and prepare the optimal therapy for individual patients.
“Alzheimer’s begins to develop long before symptoms such as memory loss develop,” said Dr. Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK. – So far, detecting the disease at the pre-symptomatic stage has been very difficult. More research is needed to confirm this finding, but a blood test that can identify disease risk will be an important tool for further research.
Ds. Ridley adds that it is now necessary to test the effectiveness of the test on a larger group of people to confirm that the treatment is more effective if started sooner. “It’s a very encouraging discovery, but more research needs to be done,” he says.
Researchers from the Georgetown University Medicine Center studied and monitored the health of 525 healthy volunteers over the age of 70 for five years. Blood samples of 53 people who developed dementia during this time period were tested and compared with blood samples taken from 53 cognitively healthy people in the same age group.
Professor Federoff, a neuroscientist at Georgetown University, says: “ Lipid levels have allowed two groups of people to be distinguished with 90% accuracy: volunteers with a normal level of cognitive ability who will develop mild cognitive disorder or Alzheimer’s within 2-3 years, and those who will disorders will not develop.
Now researchers are focusing on developing the next study involving people at risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Researchers intend to test the effectiveness of various experimental therapies.
One-third of the global population is at risk of dementia. The rapid aging of the population means that the number of people at risk could double within two decades.
In the UK, more than 800 people suffer from various forms of dementia – most commonly Alzheimer’s. Government estimates show that the disease is diagnosed in only half of the cases.
Tekst: Laura donnelly