Tell Alzheimer146;s by a simple blood test

People with Alzheimer8217;s face an awkward juncture in the near future.

People with Alzheimer8217;s face an awkward juncture in the near future. They8217;ll be able to learn early on whether they have Alzheimer8217;s disease 8212; even if they can8217;t do much about it. With therapies to halt or slow the progression of Alzheimer8217;s disease seeming ever more elusive, several blood tests in development could determine who has the disease even before symptoms develop or become severe. Researchers say they believe people would use such a test, if only to prepare for a future with the limitations wrought by dementia.

8220;It would be a boon to the field,8221; says Dr Ronald C Petersen, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesotta. 8220;Many, many people are at risk due to family history, age, genetic characteristics. But we don8217;t have a good prediction formula for who will actually get the disease.8221;

Alzheimer8217;s disease is extremely difficult to diagnose in its early stages because the symptoms, such as memory problems, can also be attributed to normal aging or a number of other illnesses. Even the appearance of plaque in brain is not considered a telltale sign of the disease because some people have plaque but not dementia. Doctors and patients need a test that is convenient, accurate, reliable and inexpensive, says Dr Harold Varmus, former director of the National Institutes of Health and a member of the Alzheimer8217;s Study Group, an independent working group mandated by the US Congress to develop a national strategic plan for Alzheimer8217;s disease.

8220;It8217;s clear that finding this disease at the earliest possible stage provides the best possible window for therapeutics,8221; Varmus said. 8220;If you can make an early diagnosis, you can think about trying to arrest the disease.8221;

A California company, Satoris Inc, has announced plans to release a blood test for use in research later this year. A study published in Nature Medicine in November examined blood samples from 259 people who had early to late-stage Alzheimer8217;s disease or did not have the disease. It found 18 proteins in the blood of Alzheimer8217;s patients with concentrations different from normal individuals. The protein panel allowed for nearly 90 per cent accuracy in diagnosing and characterising the disease even among people with only a mild version of the disease. The test will be used initially with other tests, such as brain scans, to provide a highly reliable result, said Cris McReynolds, president of Satoris. 8220;It will be an important piece of information to make an accurate diagnosis.8221;

McReynolds says he hopes a test for the general public will become available one or two years.

Another test, called NuroPro, is under development by Power3 Medical Products in the Woodlands, Texas. It measures 59 protein markers in blood that distinguish people with Alzheimer8217;s disease from those with Parkinson8217;s disease as well as those without either disease. Data from a study by Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, Arizona, are expected at the end of August, says Steven Rash, chief executive of Power3. The company hopes to launch a test for the public late this year. It8217;s too soon to tell if these tests are accurate enough to be diagnostic tests or if they may just suggest a higher risk for the disease.