A BLOOD test can now detect whether plaques are building up in your brain – a sign you may develop Alzheimer’s disease.
People with Alzheimer’s tend to have clumps of beta-amyloid protein in their brains. Until now, the only way to monitor plaque build-up has been through expensive PET scans, or invasive spinal tap procedures.
Now Randall Bateman at Washington University in St Louis and his colleagues have developed a blood test that family doctors could use during health check-ups. “This kind of test could be used to screen many thousands of patients to identify those at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, and to start treatments before memory loss and brain damage,” Bateman told the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London last week.
The test measures the relative amounts of different forms of beta-amyloid in blood to see whether plaques are likely to be building in the brain. The team developed the test by comparing ratios of beta-amyloid types in 41 people’s blood – some of whom had Alzheimer’s – with PET scans showing how much beta-amyloid had aggregated in their brains.
The hunt for drugs to combat Alzheimer’s continues, but there is evidence that lifestyle changes such as doing more exercise and having a healthier diet can reduce the risk of developing the disease by as much as 30 per cent.
A blood test could reassure some people that they aren’t at risk, while identifying others who might benefit from lifestyle changes.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Simple test to predict your risk of developing Alzheimer’s”