A simple blood test will soon reveal if the person could develop Alzheimer’s disease in the future. The test with “unparalleled accuracy” can predict the disease about a decade earlier, say scientists.
A new blood test, in its “Proof of Concept” stage, bears the ability to detect very early stages of Alzheimer’s in people who haven’t even displayed any signs of the dreaded neurodegenerative disease. The test can detect the minute chemical changes in the body about 10 years before any telltale signs even appear, shared Robert Nagele from the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine and Durin Technologies, Inc., who is part of the development team behind the blood test,
“It is now generally believed that Alzheimer’s-related changes begin in the brain at least a decade before the emergence of telltale symptoms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first blood test using autoantibody biomarkers that can accurately detect Alzheimer’s at an early point in the course of the disease when treatments are more likely to be beneficial – that is, before too much brain devastation has occurred.”
In other words, a very early detection of Alzheimer’s disease can prove crucial in combating it long before the disease has started damaging the body. By the time the degenerative disease or its signs are detected, Alzheimer’s has already entered the advanced stage, making any attempts at arresting or reversing it completely useless. At present, there are no vaccines or preventive measures to stop a person from getting the disease. Moreover, there is very little predictability involved. If that’s not enough, once a person develops Alzheimer’s, there’s little to no hope of recovery. A person with the disease has to only accept his or her fate and continue battling it, with the added complexities the disease brings. Fortunately, newer findings are improving the odds of detecting it.
The blood test could open up newer treatment options, which were never possible because there are very few early detection techniques, reported Fox News. Moreover, knowing you are going to get Alzheimer’s in the future, could offer the opportunity to participate in clinical trials for new experimental drugs and treatment options. Experts say such tests could even help the patients carefully plan their future and try different attempts at staying mentally healthy and agile to further delay the onset of Alzheimer’s.
How does a simple blood test help detect signs of Alzheimer’s? Scientists designed the blood test to detect an early stage of Alzheimer’s disease called Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). They refined the test to distinguish between other types of mental decline that are caused by factors such as vascular issues, chronic depression, alcohol abuse, and the side effects of certain drugs.
The team then tested their hypothesis and the blood test on 236 participants who were divided into three groups. The blood test uses a number of human protein microarrays – catalogs of 9,486 unique human proteins – to send out proteins to attract autoantibodies in the blood that could be linked to the disease, reports Medical Express. The scientists were able to detect 50 of the best autoantibody biomarkers for MCI. When incorporated in the final prototype of the blood test, they found it to be a 100 percent accurate in overall accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity rate in detecting the blood samples from participants with MCI, notes their paper published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
The biomarker technique has multiple applications involving numerous diseases and their early stage detection. Besides Alzheimer’s, which the blood test detected with 98.7 percent accuracy, the methodology was able to detect early-stage Parkinson’s disease with 98 percent accuracy. Multiple sclerosis, as well as breast cancer instances, were detected with 100 percent accuracy.
Alzheimer’s disease critically needs a reliable indicator, stress the researchers. With half of America’s population aged 85 years and older suffering from the disease, the medical fraternity could offer much better care and treatment options, they concluded.
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Blood Test To Detect Alzheimer’s Disease Developed – Simple Test With ‘Unparalleled Accuracy’ Can Reveal Disease A Decade Before Telltale Symptoms Appear is an article from: The Inquisitr News
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