We have a new ally to anticipate Alzheimer’s and it comes in an original way: blood tests

With no cure in sight and no way to recover from the damage done, anticipating the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms is key in the fight against this disease. A new test under development announces the possibility of anticipating up to 17 years to the arrival of the first symptoms of this disease. The key is in some proteins present in the blood.

folded proteins.
Amyloids-beta are the key molecules that form the dreaded “plaques”, structures that appear in neurons and are related to Alzheimer’s. The new test, developed by a European research team, is capable of detecting biomarkers related to protein misfolding of beta-amyloid.

The authors have reported their research in an article published in the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association (Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association).

Combine measures.
The test uses immuno-infrared sensors to find the biomarkers that signal the presence of these beta-amyloids. They compared this methodology with alternative tools for the detection of other biomarkers, in particular the so-called P-tau181 (the Tau protein is related to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s), and the presence of glial fibrillary protein (GFAP).

The researchers not only found that amyloid-beta biomarkers were effective in predicting disease onset, but the results were made even more accurate by combining this measure with the presence of GFAP.

“Surprisingly, we found that the concentration of [la proteína GFAP] it can indicate the disease up to 17 years before the clinical phase, although it does so with less precision than the immuno-infrared sensor”, explained Klaus Gerwert, one of the authors who led the study, in the press release.

First test.
The researchers used data from a study of more than 300 people over 17 years. They analyzed blood samples from the participants taken in the first stage of the study. With their analysis they were able to identify the individuals who in the second stage of the study had developed Alzheimer’s disease.

Stop the disease before the dreaded plaques.
Early detection is of immense importance in medicine and Alzheimer’s may be no exception. Today this disease has no cure or a fully effective way to prevent it. The diagnosis of this disease is also difficult since it is not easy to access the place where it appears, the brain. He therefore depends on psychiatric evaluations and tests to rule out other possible causes of his symptoms.

The developers of this new test are now working on preparing it for its commercialization, in order to offer one (yes by the US FDA), since although it was capable of removing plaques from neurons, this did not translate into a real improvement in the disease symptoms.

This clinical disaster had important consequences on the company that developed the medicine, which ceased to be produced.

A difficult time in the fight against Alzheimer’s.
As if this were not enough, the fight against this disease was recently involved in a controversy that has shaken its foundations. Some of the key research carried out in recent decades has recently been called into question. The scope of the problems found is still unknown, much less the consequences of this necessary revision.

In any case, failures like Aduhelm’s can be an argument in favor of an in-depth review of what we know about this neurodegenerative disease that is believed to affect around one million people in Spain alone, 20% of the elderly population of 80.