How reliable are blood tests for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease? – healing practice

Detecting Alzheimer’s disease using biomarkers in the blood

Can Alzheimer’s disease be treated with a blood tests early diagnosis? This question occupies research teams around the world and more and more studies indicate that a reliable prognosis is possible. A research association led by the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) now wants to clarify the situation.

Various studies have already blood biomarkers identified with the Alzheimer’s are associated, and earlier this year US researchers reported that an Alzheimer’s blood test could be used effectively for early detection. A corresponding test called “AD Precivity” is of C₂N Diagnosisa start-up University of Washingtonmarketed.

A Japanese research team has also developed an approach that aims to allow early detection of Alzheimer’s disease through blood tests. To this end, researchers from Hokkaido University and Toppan Technical Research Institute Inc. have a Biosensor technology developed that can detect beta-amyloid binding exosomes. (see Demonstrating Alzheimer’s disease in the blood).

Alzheimer’s blood test seems doable

The prospects of a mass blood draw for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease seem better than ever, but some important questions have yet to be conclusively clarified.

The research network, led by the DZNE, now wants to use blood samples from several thousand patients to determine whether blood biomarkers are really responsible for the Prediction and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease agree. According to the DZNE, the researchers are focusing on two other questions.

How reliable are blood tests?

First, the question of the reliability of blood samples taken under different conditions (e.g., family physicians’ offices and academic research institutes) were screened for biomarkers.

So “Until now, blood samples from Alzheimer’s patients have been taken to memory clinics, where they are quickly processed and frozen on dry ice or at minus 80 degrees”explains the head of the research project at DZNE, professor doctor Anya Schneider.

Thanks to the high level of effort, the results can be particularly reliable. However, these options do not normally exist in family physicians’ offices and samples are sent to laboratories at room temperature. It could be the Meaning of blood biomarkers influence in the samples.

Which biomarkers are crucial?

On the other hand, the question remains which of the blood biomarkers (possibly also in combination) are most reliably usable for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and the prediction of the disease. “The combined marker determined from this should form the basis for individualized diagnosis and therapy”according to the DZNE.

For the research project,we draw on more than 3,000 blood samples from various cohort studies” and “Cohorts include cognitively healthy individuals who have remained healthy for many years or who have progressed to dementia”Explain Professor Schneider.

In addition, data from Alzheimer’s patients in different steps and people with other neurodegenerative diseases. Among those collected over many years long term data it is possible to see which initially healthy people subsequently became ill and in which cases the disease took what course.

Researchers can therefore retrospectively examine how the later development of the disease is correlated with which biomarkers of early blood samples, where, according to the DZNE, proteins in particular Amyloid ß42 and Amyloid ß40 such as phosphorylated tau and the Neurofilament light chain (NFL) be the center of attention.

In addition to the DZNE researchers, the working groups around Prof. Dr. Alfredo Ramirez from the University Hospital Cologne, Prof. Dr. Matthias Schmid and Prof. Dr. Michael Wagner from the University Hospital Bonn and Prof. Dr. Oliver Peters from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin is involved in the current research project. (fp)