Generally, patients receive a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s only after they exhibit well-known signs of the disease, such as memory loss. By that point, the best treatment options simply slow further progression of symptoms.
But research has shown that the seeds of Alzheimer’s are planted years earlier, long before the cognitive impairments surface that make a diagnosis possible. Those seeds are amyloid beta proteins that misfold and clump together, forming small aggregates called oligomers. Over time, through a process scientists are still trying to understand, those ‘toxic’ oligomers of amyloid beta are thought to develop into Alzheimer’s.
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has developed a laboratory test that can measure levels of amyloid beta oligomers in blood samples, says a release. The test did detect oligomers in the blood of 11 individuals from the control group. Follow-up examination records were available for 10 of these individuals, and all were diagnosed years later with mild cognitive impairment or brain pathology consistent with Alzheimer’s disease. Essentially, for these 10 individuals, SOBA had detected the toxic oligomers before symptoms surfaced.
The test was able to detect oligomers in the blood of 53 of 310 individuals who had previously made their blood samples and some of their medical records available for Alzheimer’s research years ago.
Published - January 07, 2023 08:40 pm IST
