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LOS ANGELES – Scientists are getting closer to the long-sought goal: a blood test to screen for possible signs of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.
Monday, at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference, half a dozen research groups gave new results on various experimental tests, including one that appears to indicate at 88% risk of Alzheimer's.
Doctors hope to be able to use something during routine exams, where most dementia symptoms are badessed, to determine who needs more in-depth testing. Current tools such as brain scans and cerebrospinal fluid tests are too expensive or impractical for regular checkups.
"We need something faster and more dirty. To be useful for screening, it does not have to be perfect, "said Maria Carrillo, scientific lead for the Alzheimer's Association.
Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, described the new findings as "very promising" and said blood tests would soon be used to select and monitor people for government-funded studies. federal, although it will take a little longer to establish their value. in routine medical care.
"In the past year, we have witnessed a dramatic acceleration of the progress of these tests," he said. "It happened at a much faster pace than any of us could have expected."
Tom Doyle, a 66-year-old former Chicago University professor, has had two cerebrospinal fluid tests since the beginning of his memory impairment four years ago. He was first told that he was not suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and then he did it. He was eventually diagnosed with various problems – Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's disease.
"They would probably have been able to diagnose me accurately years ago had they had a blood test," said Doyle, who represents patients on the board of directors of the Alzheimer's Association.
About 50 million people worldwide have dementia and the most common form of Alzheimer's is Alzheimer's disease. There is no cure; current medications temporarily relieve symptoms. Dozens of hoped-for treatments have failed. Physicians believe that the studies may have recruited patients after too many brain injuries were sustained and that they included too many people with problems other than Alzheimer's.
A blood test – rather than subjective estimates of thinking skills – could allow the right people to participate more quickly in the studies.
One of the experimental blood tests measures the abnormal versions of the protein that forms the plaques in the brain that characterize Alzheimer's disease. Last year, Japanese researchers published a study and released Monday validation test results on 201 people with Alzheimer's disease, other types of dementia, mild or no-symptoms .
The results of the blood tests closely matched those of the most used tests: three types of brain scan and a mental badessment exam, said Dr. Akinori Nakamura of the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology in Obu, prefecture. Aichi. The test correctly identified 92% of people with Alzheimer's disease and correctly excluded 85% of the unaffected, for an overall accuracy of 88%.
Shimadzu Corp. has the rights to the test and is working to market it, said Nakamura.
Another experimental test focuses on the light of neurofilaments, a protein that is a marker of nerve damage. Abdul Hye of King's College London presented the results of a study comparing blood levels of 2,300 people with various neurological disorders – Alzheimer's, other dementias, Parkinson's, depression, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease – and healthy people.
Levels were significantly higher in eight cases and only 2% of healthy people exceeded the threshold of concern. The test does not reveal what trouble anyone has, but it can help rule out one when the symptoms may be psychological or due to other problems.
Later at the conference, Dr. Randall Bateman, from the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis, will give new results on a blood test that he helped develop and that the university has patented and licensed to C2N Diagnostics, a company he co-founded. Like the Japanese test, it measures the abnormal Alzheimer's protein and the new results will show how well the test reflects what brain tests show on nearly 500 people.
"Everyone is finding the same thing … the results are remarkably similar from one country to another, from one technique to another," said Bateman, whose work is supported by the US government and Alzheimer's. Association. He estimates that a screening test could be in three years time.
What is the point of healing?
A survey by NORC's Associated Press-Center for Public Affairs last year found that most Americans would like to know if they carry a gene related to a disease, even if incurable.
"What people want above all else is a diagnosis" they have symptoms, said Jonathan Schott of University College London. "What we do not like is not knowing what's going on."
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