Blood test can detect toxic protein years before Alzheimer’s disease symptoms appear, new American research suggests
A blood test could detect a toxic protein years before Alzheimer's disease symptoms appear, a new study suggests.
Currently patients tend to receive a diagnosis of Alzheimer'sonlyaftertheyshowwellknownsignsofthedisease,such as memory loss.
However, at that point, the best treatment options simply slow further progression of symptoms, experts say.
But research suggests the seeds of the disease are plantedmanyyearsbeforethesymp toms that make diagnosis possible.
These seeds are called amyloid beta proteins which misfold and clump together and form something called oligomers.
Overtime, toxi co li go mers are thought to develop into Alzheimer's, although scientists are still trying to understand the process through which this happens.
Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) developed a laboratory test that can measure levels of amyloid beta oligomers in blood samples.
The study suggests their test – known by the acronym SOBA – could detect oligomers in the blood of patients with Alzheimer's, but not in most members of a healthy trial group who showed no signs of cognitive impairment at the time the blood samples were taken.
However, according to the study, the test was able to detect o li go mers in the blood of 11 people from then on-alzheimer' s group.
When researchers looked at follow-up records for 10 of these people, all of them were diagnosed years later with mild cognitive impairment or brain pathology consistent with Alzheimer's disease.
"Essentially, for these 10 people, SOBA had detected the toxic oligomers before symptoms surfaced, the scientists say.
Senior author Valerie Daggett, a UW professor of bioengineering and faculty member in the uw molecular engineering& Sciences Institute, said: "What clinicians and researchers have wanted is a reliable diagnostic test for Alzheimer's disease - and not just an assay that confirms a diagnosis of Alzheimer's, but one that can also detect signs of the disease before cognitive impairment happens.
"What we show here is that SOBA may be the basis of such a test."