20 years before the start
New blood Biomarkers Show Alzheimer's risk for 20 years ahead
Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+
Scientists conducted a large-scale multi-year study and identified not only new indicators of dementia in the blood, but also a likely trigger of neurodegeneration. With their help, they expect to make diagnostics simpler and more accurate.
Currently, there is no gold standard for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases that have been forming in the body for decades without any external symptoms. Doctors make a diagnosis when a patient shows the first signs of memory loss, and brain scans and analysis of spinal fluid show accumulations of toxic proteins.
American researchers sought to make the diagnostic process simpler and more accurate, so that it was possible to determine obvious signs of risks or already developing neurodegeneration by a simple blood test.
Article by Walker et al. Large-scale plasma proteomic analysis identifies proteins and pathways associated with dementia risk published in the journal Nature Aging – VM.
The study involved more than 4,800 patients whose first blood samples dated back to the early 1990s. In total, scientists analyzed almost 5,000 different proteins in the blood of volunteers and identified 38 of the most promising.
Abnormal levels of 38 proteins were associated with a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease within five years after blood donation, the observations showed.
Repeated analysis of blood samples of participants in the period from 2011 to 2013 showed that 16 proteins out of 38 previously detected should be considered the most informative for diagnosing the risks of neurodegeneration over the next twenty years.
The same biomarkers were tested in a control cohort of patients from Iceland. 13 of the 16 proteins proved promising for risk assessment, and six of them were informative for predicting likely risks over the next ten years.
It is noteworthy that among all biomarkers, scientists have found the SVEP1 protein (von Willebrand factor), which is presumably involved in the launch and development of Alzheimer's disease.
Currently, the team is continuing research work in the hope of soon presenting a promising blood test to assess the risks of Alzheimer's disease in the long term.
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