The New Alzheimer’s Breakthrough

By Sarah Marinos

What is it?

Scientists have made a crucial step towards developing a blood test that can predict Alzheimer’s disease—before symptoms appear. Using information from the international Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database, experts at The University of Newcastle in NSW have identified 11 specific blood proteins that indicate whether someone is progressing towards the disorder. Over time, monitoring the changes in these proteins could produce a predictive accuracy of more than 90%.

Why is it important?

The most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s currently affects around one in 25 Australians aged 60 years and over—and at the moment, it is incurable. But researchers are trying to develop a blood test that can signal whether someone is at risk of the disease, possibly three to five years before clinical symptoms appear.

So this new Australian research is an important step towards that goal. “At present, Alzheimer’s diagnoses are based on clinical observations and on tests of cognitive capacity and memory loss,” says Pablo Moscato, PhD, co-director of the university’s Priority Research Centre for Bioinformatics, Biomarker Discovery and Information-Based Medicine.

“So far, the only reliable biological markers we’ve identified for early diagnosis require measurement by expensive procedures, such as brain imaging, or by invasive procedures, such as spinal punctures,” he adds. But just as women have mammograms to screen for breast cancer, we could have a blood test to monitor our risk
of Alzheimer’s disease within five to 10 years, explains Moscato.

What does this mean for the average person?

“We don’t yet have any drugs or surgical interventions that can slow, stop or cure dementia, even if we were able to detect it early,” says Dr Chris Hatherly, national research manager at Alzheimer’s Australia. “However, we are likely to see these kinds of treatments appear in the next 10 to 20 years, so early detection will be vital in the future,” he adds.

“This new research is an exciting advance in the global effort to develop effective and dependable screening and diagnostic tests for Alzheimer’s disease, as well as for other forms of dementia.” The other piece of good news? The risk of dementia can be reduced by exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, choosing not to smoke and staying mentally and socially active. “If we were able to let people in their 50s know that they were at high risk of Alzheimer’s, lifestyle changes such as these may start to become more important to them,” says Hatherly.