UCLA researchers have shown the first evidence that a simple blood test could be developed to confirm the presence of beta amyloid proteins in the brain, which is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.
“Blood based biomarkers would have the important advantage of being safer, affordable, and easy to administer in large groups or in rural areas, and therefore could have an enormous impact on clinical care and clinical trials alike,” said Dr. Liana G. Apostolova, director of the nueroimaging laboratory at the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research at UCLA and head of the research team. Results of the study appeared in the journal Neurology.
The UCLA researchers developed a simple signature for predicting the presence of brain amyloidosis – the build-up of amyloid in the brain – including several blood proteins known to be associated with Alzheimer’s disease, along with information routinely obtained during a clinical work-up for patients suspected to have the disease, including the results of memory testing and structural magnetic resonance imaging.
sciencedaily.com
March 11, 2015