New Delhi: Scientists and medical experts across the world are in continuous pursuit to find advanced and more effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease
A latest study has identified tests which may help diagnose Alzheimer’s, which is a neurological condition, during the earliest stage.
Another optimal blood test has also been zeroed in on by the researchers — led by Prof. Oskar Hansson of Lund University and Prof. Kaj Blennow, University of Gothenburg — for detecting relevant treatment effects to speed up diagnosis and treatment, and reduce progression of the disease.
The team of researchers, whose findings have been published in Nature Medicine, analysed different blood tests and found multiple blood biomarkers which were sufficient in identifying Alzheimer’s disease pathology, even in those with no symptom.
Blood tests for Alzheimer’s pathology and neurodegeneration were carried out in 575 individuals. In 242 participants, plasma tests were repeated for up to 6 years, along with cognitive testing and magnetic resonance imaging.
It was found that over six years, only phospho-tau217 was related to Alzheimer’s disease pathology, a decline in cognitive performance and increased brain atrophy typical of incipient Alzheimer’s.
According to Lancet, plasma tau phosphorylated at threonine 217 (p-tau217) and plasma tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 (p-tau181) are associated with Alzheimer’s disease tau pathology.
The study shows that phospho-tau217 is ideal to be an optimal test for monitoring patients in clinical setting as well as trial setting due to its longitudinal association with Alzheimer’s development.
“Besides improving the design of clinical trials, the novel blood tests will revolutionize the diagnoses of early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Further, phospoho-tau217 might be used in the future to monitor the response in individual patients to disease-modifying therapies in clinical practice,” Hansson observed.
According to US-based CDC, Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia and progressive in nature. It begins with mild memory loss and progresses to loss of ability to carry on a conversation and respond to environment.
Alzheimer’s involves parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language.
