A blood test was developed for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Australian specialists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) have developed a blood test to find out how much brain beta-amyloid plaques are deposited that are a sign of Alzheimer's disease.
Today, Alzheimer's disease affects 35 million people around the world. This is the most common form of dementia. Methods of treatment of the disease does not exist yet; The proposed drugs only alleviate his symptoms.
Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is possible, even for ten or more years before the appearance of memory and thinking problems, it is possible to see depositions of beta-amyloid with the help of computer tomography of the brain. However, CT is a costly way to identify the disease, so scientists continued to work on finding quick and cheap ways to diagnose Alzheimer's.
A team of specialists from CSIRO and several universities conducted a long-term study involving 1,100 people, some of whom were sick. First, 273 participants took blood for analysis. Scientists identified in the samples nine hormones and proteins, which seemed to them the most informative for the level of beta-amyloid in the brain. Then, the blood of the remaining subjects was analyzed for the presence of nine of these markers. As a result, it was possible to separate the healthy participants in the experiment from those who experienced so-called mild mental disorders. The presence of cognitive impairment revealed by blood was confirmed by computed tomography of the brain.
Thus, the test correctly detected 83% of participants with a high concentration of beta-amyloid and 85% of healthy subjects. Scientists believe that this is quite high rates. The test was tested on 817 Australians and 74 US residents and showed the same accuracy.
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