A simple blood test capable of predicting if a person might develop Alzheimer's disease is within sight, and could eventually be used to help scientists reverse onset of the disease in those most at risk.
According to new research by Rockefeller University scientists and their colleagues at Columbia University, which followed a large population of elderly people for more than four years, blood levels of a protein called Amyloid-â 42 (Aâ42) may allow doctors to detect an individual's predisposition to developing the disease. The findings, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have the potential to change the way that the disease is treated and, one day, perhaps even prevent it from taking hold.
The study - a collaboration between Jeffrey Ravetch, Theresa and Eugene M. Lang Professor and head of the Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology, and scientists at the Columbia University Medical Center - showed that plasma levels of Aâ42 increase before the onset of Alzheimer's disease and decline shortly after the onset of dementia. The researchers found that people with elevated levels of Aâ42 in their blood appear to be at increased risk of developing Alzheimer's, especially when those levels then begin to decrease over time.