Abu Dhabi: Because Alzheimer’s is a disease that often progresses very slowly, often over one or two decades, researchers across the world are keen on finding a blood test that could help detect and predict future risk of Alzheimer’s.
The search is often referred to as the search for the holy grail of Alzheimer’s, but experts still feel that it is at least five to ten years away from becoming successful, and even longer from being used routinely at clinics.
“These tests often seem workable in clinical populations, where the majority of people tested have some level of cognitive and mental impairment. But when extended to a general population, the results cannot yet be replicated, and this makes tests unreliable or inaccurate,” Dr Francesca Mangialasche, senior geriatrician and researcher at the Sweden-based medical university Karolinska Institute, told Gulf News.
Dr Mangialasche, along with a team of other specialists from the institute, has been working with the philanthropic organisation, the Shaikha Salama Bint Hamdan Foundation, to create awareness about the degenerative disease in the UAE, and enable capacity-building in medical facilities to handle expected increases in the prevalence of Alzheimer’s.
At present, medical professionals diagnose Alzheimer’s risk using a number of different assessments, including brain scans that are expensive and invasive. These include PET scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to test the functional and structural functionalities of the brain.
In July, researchers at King’s College London announced that a study of 1,148 people had found a combination of 10 proteins that could predict an individual’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s within a year. They added that the test is accurate in 87 per cent of cases.
And in March, experts at Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington said they had identified 10 blood lips that can be used to detect the early signs of Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia three years before the onset of symptoms.
“It will be great to have a quick and easy blood test that predicts Alzheimer’s risk. Even so, I believe there will still be a need to use some level of imaging to screen for the disease,” Dr Mangialasche said.
