Alzheimer’s disease is a disease characterized by abnormal accumulation of amyloid beta and tau proteins that kill neurons in the brain. These proteins cluster in the brain and cause symptoms such as memory loss, cognitive impairment, and behavioral changes. There is no definitive treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and its effects are irreversible.
That’s why it’s so important to detect Alzheimer’s disease as early as possible. Early detection can help patients and their caregivers prepare for illness, evaluate treatment options, and improve quality of life. But there has been no reliable and easy way to detect Alzheimer’s disease early, at least until now. Often complex and expensive methods were required, such as brain scans, cognitive tests, and spinal fluid samples.
This simple blood test can detect Alzheimer’s disease 10 years earlier
Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have linked a sugar molecule in the bloodstream with Alzheimer’s disease. This molecule is a glucan molecule called bisected N-acetylglucosamine. Glucans are structures made up of sugar molecules, they are located on the surface of proteins and affect their functions.
Researchers analyzed data from 233 people as part of the Swedish National Survey on Aging and Care (SNAC-K). The original data were collected between 2001 and 2004 and followed for 17 years at intervals determined by the age of the participants. People with matching glucan and tau levels in their blood were more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s dementia.
This link has been seen before in the cerebrospinal fluid in the spinal cord, but blood tests are much easier to do. If these findings turn into an Alzheimer’s screening test, the researchers would like to add further criteria. For example, looking at the APOE4 gene, which is associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
It also proves that a simple statistical model that takes into account blood glycan and tau levels, the risk gene APOE4, and a memory test can be used to predict Alzheimer’s disease with 80% confidence, almost a decade before symptoms such as memory loss appear.
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