Blood test can predict Alzheimer's disease

A team of researchers have found that a blood test could predict whether or not someone is likely to develop Alzheimer's disease within three years. 

Published in Nature Medicine, the test can predict with greater than 90 per cent accuracy if a healthy person will develop Alzheimer's disease within three years - or a mild cognitive impairment.

The study could pave the way for developing treatment strategies for people suffering with the early stages of Alzheimer's, when it is thought that therapy would be more effective at preventing or slowing later symptoms.

It is the first known published report of blood-based biomarkers for preclinical Alzheimer's and determines from ten fats, found in the blood, whether the disease will develop in a three-year period. 

Statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that around 35.6 million people have the disease and this figure is expected to double every 20 years reaching 115.4 million people by 2050. According to the research team, the study could be ready for use in clinical studies in as little as two years.

Howard J. Federoff, MD, PhD, professor of neurology and author of the study said: "Our novel blood test offers the potential to identify people at risk for progressive cognitive decline and can change how patients, their families and treating physicians plan for and manage the disorder."

Professor Federoff says that many studies have been performed to try and halt or reverse the effects of Alzheimer's disease, but none have had any success. He says that one of the reasons why this may have happened is that drugs were evaluated too late in the disease process.

The five-year study involved 525 healthy participants aged 70 and older who gave blood samples at the start of the study, and at various intervals throughout. During the research, 74 participants met the criteria for either mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) or a condition known as amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), where memory is affected. 

"We consider our results a major step toward the commercialization of a preclinical disease biomarker test that could be useful for large-scale screening to identify at-risk individuals." added Professor Federoff.