Research coming out of King’s College London is offering hope for Alzheimer’s disease blood test:
Proteins found in the blood can indicate an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, according to groundbreaking new research published today (30 October) in the journal Brain. It is the first time markers for the development of Alzheimer’s have been identified in blood.
More details about these markers from the abstract:
For discovery-phase proteomics analysis, 50 people with Alzheimer’s dementia were recruited through secondary services and 50 normal elderly controls through primary care. For validation purposes a total of 511 subjects with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases and normal elderly controls were examined. Image analysis of the protein distribution of the gels alone identifies disease cases with 56% sensitivity and 80% specificity. Mass spectrometric analysis of the changes observed in two-dimensional electrophoresis identified a number of proteins previously implicated in the disease pathology, including complement factor H (CFH) precursor and α-2-macroglobulin (α-2M). Using semi-quantitative immunoblotting, the elevation of CFH and α-2M was shown to be specific for Alzheimer’s disease and to correlate with disease severity although alternative assays would be necessary to improve sensitivity and specificity. These findings suggest that blood may be a rich source for biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease and that CFH, together with other proteins such as α-2M may be a specific markers of this illness.