"The results represent a breakthrough in the hunt for diagnostic methods for Alzheimer´s. An ordinary blood test for Alzheimer´s will be of great significance if the new drugs that slow down the progression of the disease prove to have a favourable effect," says Kaj Blennow, a professor at the Sahlgrenska Academy and one of the authors of the study which will shortly be published in the highly respected journal Nature Medicine. Urgent need for diagnostic tools
There is symptom-relieving treatment for Alzheimer´s patients today. However, the efficacy of this type of medication is modest and temporary. In the last 20 years research has led to detailed knowledge on how Alzheimer's develops. This in-depth knowledge has also resulted in several candidate drugs, which are now being tested on patients.
"If these drugs prove to have favourable clinical efficacy there will be a great and urgent need for diagnostic aids to identify Alzheimer´s as early as possible. Treatment with this new type of drug will probably need to start in the initial phase of Alzheimer's, when there is mild cognitive impairment, as the brain damage will otherwise have become too great for the drugs to have optimal efficacy. However, clinical diagnosis is very difficult in this phase, as the symptoms are vague, often nothing more than mild memory impairment," says Professor Blennow.
In the study, which is a cooperative project involving research teams at Sahlgrenska Academy and Malmö University Hospital and American research scientists, results showing that Alzheimer´s can be detected by a simple blood test are presented.
90 percent tested positive in early phase
Statistical analyses enabled 18 proteins to be identified which, with a high level of reliability of 85 to 90 per cent, could identify Alzheimer´s and distinguish Alzheimer´s cases both from healthy elderly people and from patients with other brain diseases. Even in the early phase of the disease as many as 90 per cent of patient tested positive.
The next step is to develop a method of analysis for these 18 proteins that can be used in an ordinary hospital laboratory. It would then also be possible to use the test to screen for Alzheimer's at healthcare centres and other healthcare units.
Publication: Nature Medicine
Title of Artcle: Early Alzheimer's disease defined by patterns of cellular communication factors in plasma
Authors: Sandip Ray, Markus Britschgi, Charles Herbert, Yoshiko Takeda-Uchimura, Adam Boxer, Douglas R. Galasko, Marek Jutel, Jeffrey A. Kaye, Jerzy Leszek, Bruce Miller, Lennart Minthon, Alessandra Piccini, Joseph F. Quinn, William H. Robinson, Marwan N. Sabbagh, Yuen So, D. Larry Sparks, Massimo Tabaton, Jared Tinklenberg, Jerome Yesavage, Robert Tibshirani, Kaj Blennow och Tony Wyss-Coray.
