A drop of blood exposes Alzheimer's disease 16 years before its appearance

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US researchers have developed a simple blood test to detect the signs of Alzheimer's disease 16 years before the onset of symptoms.
The test was developed by researchers from the University of Washington's Faculty of Medicine in collaboration with researchers at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases. His findings were published in the latest issue of Nature Medicine.
The new test revealed a protein called "neurofilament", which is part of the internal structure of nerve cells, the researchers said.
When neurons in the brain die or die, the protein infiltrates the cerebrospinal fluid that covers the brain and spinal cord and then enters the bloodstream.
High levels of protein in the cerebrospinal fluid have been shown to be strong evidence that some brain cells have been damaged, but obtaining cerebrospinal fluid requires complex medical procedures that many people are hesitating to suffer.
The team examined whether levels of "neurofilaments" in the blood also reflected neurological damage: it tested more than 400 people, including 247 people with inherited genes for Alzheimer's disease.
The team examined participants' blood samples, brain tests, as well as cognitive and cognitive tests.
Researchers found that people with genetic characteristics of the disease had higher than average protein levels and increased over time.
They also discovered, through radiation tests, that protein levels increased rapidly, compared to the degradation and degradation of the brain's memory.