The Medical Independent blog takes a look at the more unconventional niches in science and research
An early warning on Alzheimer’s
An international team of researchers, in
conjunction with a worldwide research collaboration dedicated to
Alzheimer’s disease, has discovered a way to identify the onset of the
condition years before the physical symptoms manifest.
Long before the symptoms of Alzheimer’s
become apparent, neurons begin to degrade and the brain begins to change
and the researchers found that neurofilament accumulates in the blood
very early in the preclinical phase among those who will develop the
condition. The amount and nature of these neurofilaments can predict the
onset of Alzheimer’s with remarkable sensitivity, offering a potential
new diagnostic tool that is less expensive and easier to apply than
brain scans.
The team — from the German Centre for
Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the Hertie Institute for Clinical
Brain Research and the University Hospital Tuebingen — worked in
conjunction with the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network, as well as
other international institutions. They found that analysing amyloid
proteins in the blood reflects neuronal degradation with a high degree
of accuracy.
Dr Mathias Jucker, Senior Researcher at
DZNE, commented: “The fact that there is still no effective treatment
for Alzheimer’s is partly because current therapies start much too late.
“Our blood test does not look at the
amyloid, but at what it does in the brain, namely neurodegeneration. In
other words, we look at the death of neurons.”
The research was partly based on the fact
that when brain cells die, their remains can be identified in a blood
test. “Normally, however, such proteins are rapidly degraded in the
blood and are therefore not very suitable as markers for a
neurodegenerative disease. An exception, however, is a small piece of
so-called neurofilament that is surprisingly resistant to this
degradation,” added Dr Jucker.
He and his colleagues followed 406
individuals and noted that these changes were detectable up to 16 years
before the onset of Alzheimer’s.
While the rate of change in neurofilaments
was associated with brain degradation, its relationship to deposition of
toxic amyloid proteins was less noticeable, which supports the theory
that while amyloid proteins trigger the condition, neuronal degradation
occurs as an independent entity in the disease course.
The accumulation of neurofilaments in the
blood also occurs in other neurodegenerative disorders, so the blood
test is only conditionally applicable for diagnosing Alzheimer’s
disease. “However, the test accurately shows the course of the disease
and is therefore a powerful instrument for investigating novel
Alzheimer’s therapies in clinical trials,” said Dr Jucker.
The research was published recently in the journal Nature Medicine.
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