Innovative Blood Test Shows Alzheimer’s Progress
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Synopsis
A recently developed blood test by US researchers aids in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease and reveals its progression, enhancing treatment strategies.
Key Takeaways
- New blood test for Alzheimer’s diagnosis and progression.
- Identifies clinical stages of Alzheimer’s symptoms.
- Helps determine appropriate drug treatments.
- Measures tau protein levels in blood.
- High accuracy in reflecting brain tau tangles.
New Delhi, March 31 (NationPress) Researchers in the US have created an advanced blood test that not only facilitates the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease but also reveals the extent of its progression.
While existing blood tests for Alzheimer’s can confirm the disease's presence, they fall short of indicating the clinical stage of symptoms – specifically, the level of cognitive or memory impairment caused by Alzheimer’s dementia.
This novel test can assist healthcare providers in determining which patients may benefit from drug therapies and to what degree. Additionally, it can clarify whether an individual's symptoms are attributed to Alzheimer’s or other underlying issues, according to findings from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, US, and Lund University in Sweden.
The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, revealed that the levels of a protein named MTBR-tau243 in the bloodstream accurately mirror the toxic buildup of tau aggregates in the brain and correlate with the severity of Alzheimer’s disease.
By analyzing blood levels of MTBR-tau243 from individuals experiencing cognitive decline, the researchers successfully differentiated between early- and late-stage Alzheimer’s patients and distinguished them from those whose symptoms were caused by other conditions.
“This blood test distinctly identifies Alzheimer’s tau tangles, which serve as our most reliable biomarker for Alzheimer’s symptoms and dementia,” stated co-senior author Randall J. Bateman, Professor of Neurology at Washington University.
“Currently, clinical practices lack straightforward and accessible measures for detecting Alzheimer’s tangles and dementia. Thus, a tangle blood test like this could significantly enhance understanding of whether symptoms are indeed linked to Alzheimer’s and aid in determining optimal treatments for patients,” he further elaborated.
The researchers devised a method to measure MTBR-tau243 levels in blood samples and compared these levels with the quantity of tau tangles in patients’ brains as assessed via brain scans.
The approach was initially tested on data from two cohorts: 108 individuals from the US and a subset of 55 individuals from Sweden. To ensure the method's applicability, it was validated against an independent dataset of 739 additional individuals in Sweden.
The analysis indicated that blood levels of MTBR-tau243 reflected the brain's tau tangle amounts with an accuracy rate of 92 percent.
