Differential diagnosis
A blood test for tau protein will reveal Alzheimer's disease in the early stages
Sergey Kolenov, Hi-tech+
Researchers from the USA have found out that the concentration of phosphorylated tau protein 181 in the blood can serve as a reliable marker of Alzheimer's disease. This indicator not only allows you to separate sick people from healthy people, but also does not confuse Alzheimer's disease with other forms of dementia.
Diagnosing Alzheimer's is not easy. To detect this deadly disease, doctors have to rely on positron emission tomography or analysis of cerebrospinal fluid. These expensive procedures cannot be prescribed as part of regular screening, so scientists are actively looking for more affordable ways to diagnose Alzheimer's disease at an early stage – for example, using a blood test.
In most cases, it is proposed to use improperly folded beta-amyloid proteins as a biomarker of Alzheimer's disease. However, experts from the University of California in San Francisco is confident that the accuracy of diagnosis will increase significantly if we take into account other toxic molecules associated with neurodegeneration. We are talking about excessively phosphorylated tau proteins.
The team conducted an experiment with more than 400 volunteers, including healthy people, patients with diagnosed Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, as well as several people with mild cognitive impairment. In each of them, the authors measured the concentration of phosphorylated protein tau-181 in the blood. It turned out that in patients with Alzheimer's disease, its levels are 3.5 times higher than normal.
At the same time, in people with frontotemporal dementia, the concentration of phosphorylated tau-181 was the same as in healthy participants. This is an important discovery because this disease is often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's disease.
To assess how accurately a blood test estimates the concentration of tau proteins in the brain, the researchers compared the results with data from the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid. The check confirmed that these indicators correlate well with each other.
The team is currently working on improving the test. The researchers hope that it will be used in clinics in five years.
Article by Thijssen et al. Diagnostic value of plasma phosphorylated tau181 in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration is published in the journal Nature Medicine, the press release of New Blood Test Could Make Alzheimer's Diagnosis Easier Than Ever can be read on the website of UC San Francisco – VM.
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