Expert highlights progress and challenges in developing blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease

With advances in therapy for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), including the recent approval of aducanumab – the first FDA-approved anti-amyloid immunotherapy for the disease – blood tests are needed. simple that could be used to ensure an accurate diagnosis and assess treatment progress.

From a perspective, Kaj Blennow highlights the progress made in developing blood tests for AD and the challenges that remain. AD is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes severe memory loss and cognitive decline. While much about AD is poorly understood, disease progression is often characterized by the accumulation of the proteins amyloid (Aβ) and phosphorylated tau (pTau), which become neurofibrillary plaques and tangles in the brain.

These proteins are used as biomarkers to diagnose and monitor AD in patients using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging or by measuring Aβ and pTau concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid. Although these approaches allow more reliable clinical diagnoses of AD, they are expensive and very invasive. Here, Blennow makes a case for widely accessible and inexpensive blood biomarker tests for AD. According to the author, these tests could be used to quickly and easily detect and monitor the progression of AD in patients. They could also be used in clinical trials involving new therapies for AD to assess their therapeutic efficacy.

Although progress has been made to achieve these goals, several obstacles must be overcome, including the identification and classification of the most useful blood biomarkers for AD. However, Blennow notes that advancements in technology have made it possible to measure very small amounts of brain-derived proteins in blood samples, suggesting that AD blood tests may soon be performed.