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German and American researchers have developed a blood test that can detect Alzheimer's disease up to 16 years before the onset of symptoms, including memory loss. The test identifies some proteins produced during the death of nerve cells.
"The fact that there is still no effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease is due in part to the fact that current treatments started too late," said Mathias Jucker from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), one of the leading authors of the published study. Jucker said the proteins generated by the death of nerve cells break down quickly in the blood, according to Jucker. The researchers, however, discovered an extremely powerful neurofilament that accumulates in patients' blood long before the first symptoms of the disease.
Jucker and his team, along with scientists from the University of Washington Medical School in St. Louis, examined whether high levels of this neurofilament in the blood resulted in neurological damage. For this, they badyzed data and samples from more than 400 members of a network that was investigating families affected by Alzheimer's disease.
The researchers badyzed the evolution of the concentration of this specific protein in the blood, 16 months before the onset of symptoms. significant changes can already be detected. According to Jucker, it was possible to predict the loss of brain mbad and the cognitive changes that would occur years later.
High levels of neurofilament in the blood may also indicate other neurological diseases or lesions. The researchers concluded that the results of the study could in the future be used to identify brain lesions in patients with other neurodegenerative diseases.
For the moment, the test can not be used yet. To release them, researchers must now determine what concentration of neurofilament in the blood can be considered high and at what point its increase is worrying.
Alzheimer's disease is still caused by the death of brain cells, altering functions such as memory, language, and orientation.
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