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blood test could help Alzheimer’s patients
An advance by US scientists may help produce a test which could one day diagnose Alzheimer’s disease at an early stage.
Their experiments in mice seem to be able to accurately detect the amount of a body protein called amyloid in the brain.
The protein has been strongly linked to the development of Alzheimer’s as it clumps together, and forms “plaques” in the organ, killing brain cells.
By the time symptoms of Alzheimer’s dementia appear, it is likely that the plaques have been forming in the brain for some time – perhaps years – undetected.
The study, published in the journal Science, was carried out by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis.
Some testers have measured the level of amyloid proteins in the blood, and tried to use this as a guide to the amyloid levels in the brain, but this has not proved particularly reliable.