We still don’t know how to quickly detect Alzheimer’s disease; The new promise is simple: a blood test
Until March 2023 WHO estimates that more than 55 million people worldwide suffer from dementia, of which more than 60% are due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Likewise, AD is estimated to be the seventh most common cause of death among older adults. Find a way identify this disease in stages before symptoms appear This is important, and a recent study seems to shed light on it.
Published in the magazine JAMA Neurologythis study showed method for identifying blood biomarkers associated with AD. If it could be brought to the global market, it could be a blood test for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. But what biomarkers are we talking about?
According to studies conducted by researchers from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and University College London, The p-tau217 test has demonstrated high accuracy in detecting abnormal pathologies associated with Alzheimer’s disease.. This test detected the accumulation of amyloid beta (Aβ) and tau (τ) proteins. Both proteins contribute to the formation of plaques and tangles characteristic of the brain of a person with AD.
p-tau217 test
This test they were found to be superior in effectiveness to other biomarkers present in the blood., such as p-tau181 or p-tau231, as well as other indicators of neurodegenerative processes, such as the GFAP or NfL protein. In addition, the ability to detect tau protein markers even in patients with beta-amyloid accumulation suggests that p-tau217 may be useful for the early identification of patients with AD.
To carry out all this researchand recruited participants are classified according to their cognitive statusthat is, how advanced the disease was. These patients ranged from patients without cognitive impairment to patients with Alzheimer’s disease dementia to patients with non-Alzheimer’s dementia. As if this were not enough, p-tau217 demonstrated an AUC of 0.92, which is an excellent performance considering that an AUC of 1.0 would be an ideal test and an AUC of 0.5 would be a predictive test due to chance.
This study suggests that the test can be done in clinical trials. This is vital as it can provide important information about the presence of AD-related brain abnormalities, making it a promising tool for early diagnosis and monitoring of the disease.
Alzheimer’s disease in Mexico
According to an article on the Mexican government website, It is estimated that up to 2021, about 1.3 million people will have Alzheimer’s disease.. Of these, 60% to 70% have dementia, especially in people over 65 years of age. To put this into perspective, before 2020 there were almost as many people living in Guadalajara as there were people with AD in Mexico.
Alzheimer’s disease is a serious disease that This affects not only the patient, but also all relationships around him.. It can put families of those who suffer from it in difficult situations, and since it is the seventh leading cause of death among older people, it is of paramount medical interest to find a way to detect and combat it early.