A study by the journal Nature Aging of frozen blood samples has uncovered an accumulation of proteins that could predict several forms of dementia over ten years before the disease is diagnosed, said researchers from China and the U.K. on Monday.
The study is part of ongoing research from numerous teams to identify patients at risk for dementia utilizing a simple blood test, an advance many scientists believe will speed up the development of new treatments.
Currently, with costly tests frequently not covered by insurance, brain scans can detect abnormal levels of a protein called beta-amyloid several years before the development of Alzheimer’s dementia.
“Based on this study, it does seem likely that blood tests will be developed that can predict risk for developing dementia over the next ten years, although individuals at higher risk often have difficulty knowing how to respond,” said Alzheimer’s researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. Suzanne Schindler, who wasn’t involved in the research.
The study’s author, Jian-Feng Feng of Shanghai’s Fudan University, said such tests are crucial in aging populations like China’s. He noted that he is in talks for possible commercial development of a blood test based on the research.
Researchers at Fudan University and the University of Warwick conducted a study that looked at 52,645 blood samples from the U.K.’s Biobank research repository, collected between 2006 and 2010 from individuals with no signs of dementia.
Out of these, 1,417 people developed Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or vascular dementia, eventually from any cause. Researchers studied protein signatures that are common in individuals and discovered 1,463 proteins that are associated with dementia. The proteins were then ranked according to how likely they were in predicting dementia.
The researchers found that individuals whose blood contained higher levels of the proteins NEFL, LTBP2, GFAP, and GDF15 were persistently more likely to have developed dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or vascular dementia from any cause.
People who had elevated levels of GFAP were 2.32 times more likely to develop dementia. This discovery confirms findings from smaller studies that had pointed to this protein’s contribution.
The authors noted their research hasn’t been validated independently.
One protein that performed well in predicting neurofilament light and dementia is already used in the clinic for monitoring and diagnosing some conditions, including multiple sclerosis, said Schindler.
“This study did not include clinically available blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease, which likely would even better predict the development of dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease,” said Schindler.
Tests are already being used to identify candidates for clinical trials testing patient treatments with early-stage or pre-symbiotic disease, like Biogen’s Leqembi and Eisai. The drug recently won regulatory approval in the U.S., China, and Japan.
