Scientists discover method that could help predict Alzheimer’s

Changes to proteins in blood and spinal fluid could help doctors predict the fate of Alzheimer’s patients, research has shown.

As the severity of the disease increases, the molecules become longer, more rigid and more clustered, scientists have discovered.

Information about the proteins was combined with cognitive assessments to provide a new way of staging the illness and rating its progression.

Lead researcher Professor Mingjun Zhang, from Ohio State University in the US, said: “With a tool like this you may predict how fast this disease will go, and currently we can’t do that – we just know everyone is different.

“Looking at multiple indicators of the disease all at once increases the reliability of the diagnosis and prognosis.”

Samples used in the study came from patients seen by co-author Professor Douglas Scharre, from Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.

Prof Scharre said: “It was fairly easy to see changes between normal ageing and different stages of Alzheimer’s disease using these biomarkers, and to see significant changes.”

A simple and accurate method of tracking Alzheimer’s progression could greatly speed up the development of new, effective and personalised treatments, the scientists believe.

Currently, available medicines only treat symptoms of the disease. A number of experimental disease-modifying drugs are thought to have failed in trials partly because they could not be given early enough.

Co-author Professor Jeff Kuret, also from Ohio State University, said: “The goal is to have a sensitive test that could be applied at the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and would not be too expensive.