Team develops blood test for detecting Alzheimer’s

February 1, 2018

Tokyo- A Japanese research team has worked out a blood test that can identify individuals at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, an achievement that is expected to contribute to the discovery of a cure for the disease.

The team of researchers from the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology and precision instrument maker Shimadzu Corp. announced the achievement in an article published on the online version of the British journal Nature on Thursday.

According to the team, an abnormal protein, called amyloid beta, starts to accumulate in the brain of an Alzheimer's patient over some 20 years before dementia symptoms appear.

Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging or cerebrospinal fluid testing have been used as methods to detect the deposition of amyloid beta, but these tests are costly.

The team established a technique of measuring three kinds of amyloid beta-related substances that leak into the blood from the brain in small amounts for judging whether there is any deposition of the abnormal protein.

About 90 percent of the results of the new blood test conducted on 232 people in Japan and Australia matched those of PET imaging, according to the team.

Of the three amyloid beta-related substances, one tends to stay in the brain and its leakage into the blood decreases when abnormal amyloid beta deposition occurs. The remaining two are less prone to accumulation in the brain, and their levels in the blood do not change much.

The new testing method measures the ratio of these substances to predict whether amyloid beta is being accumulated in the brain.

Currently, there is no fundamental cure for Alzheimer's disease.

The team said the new testing method is expected to help advance drug development by finding many early-stage Alzheimer's patients and having them participate in clinical tests.

If a cure for Alzheimer's disease is discovered, the new testing would potentially enable efficient population screening, the team said. Jiji Press