Accessible Alzheimer’s Blood Test
A blood test that can accurately detect Alzheimer’s disease by measuring levels of tau in the brain has been discovered by researchers at McGill University in Canada and Gothenburg University in Sweden.
Diagnosing Alzheimer’s is costly, and is usually done via relatively invasive procedures such as PET scans and lumbar punctures – an accessible, cost effective blood test has been in the pipeline for quite some time. Tau proteins are difficult to detect in blood samples since they exist in low amounts, so developing a test which is sensitive enough to detect tau, has up until now been a challenge.
The findings which could potentially revolutionise the way the disease is diagnosed, are published in the May edition of Lancet Neurology.
There have been many advancements in Alzheimer’s research within the last decade, but unfortunately many setbacks in terms of therapeutic development. Clinical trials testing medication for Alzheimer’s are important to establish a therapeutic which can slow or halt disease progression.
