Alzheimers Research UK explain 'what is dementia?'
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Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common forms of dementia in the UK. It is a progressive condition, meaning it gets worse over time. What will initially be minor memory problems can develop into much more severe symptoms.
Like other types of dementia, the risk for Alzheimer’s increases with age.
And diagnosis typically involves someone spotting the symptoms in themselves or a loved one and going to the GP.
The GP will then ask the patient a series of questions to determine the likelihood of dementia and possibly refer them to a specialist.
However, new research has found a new way of diagnosing Alzheimer’s.
The Swedish study, which was published in Nature Medicine journal, analysed the use of various new blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease pathology and neurodegeneration on 575 individuals.
Among 242 of the participants, the plasma tests were repeated for up to six years, alongside cognitive tests and magnetic resonance imaging, which creates detailed images of the brain.
The trials found that multiple blood biomarkers, specifically phospho-tau231 and Aβ42/40, were sufficient in identifying Alzheimer’s disease pathology, even among people with no symptoms.
This could then be used to select eligible individuals for disease modifying trials, which currently needs expensive testing to establish.
However, over the six year period, it was shown that only phospho-tau217 (abbreviated to p-tau217) was related to Alzheimer’s disease pathology, a decline in cognitive performance and increased brain atrophy typical of incipient Alzheimer’s.
Scientists concluded that p-tau217 will be an “ideal” for the detection of relevant disease-modifying effects of novel interventions.
First study author, Doctor Nicholas Ashton from the University of Gothenburg, said: “Distinctive blood tests may be optimal for the identification of Alzheimer’s pathology or for monitoring of disease progression and therefore have different roles in clinical trials.
“This study has shown that p-tau217 is uniquely placed to be an optimal test for monitoring patients in both a clinical setting and a trial setting because of its longitudinal association with Alzheimer’s development.”
Another vital revelation from the study was that p-tau217 was able to pick up on changes in pathology and cognition during the very early stages of the disease process.
This finding was replicated in an independent cohort from the US.
Study lead Professor Oskar Hanssson highlighted the importance of this research.
He added: “Besides improving the design of clinical trials, the novel blood tests will revolutionise the diagnoses of early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
“Further, p-tau217 might be used in the future to monitor the response in individual patients to disease-modifying therapies in clinical practice.”
It comes as Express.co.uk reported the successful trials of the new “breakthrough” drug Lecanemab, which was shown to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
This could become available in the UK as early as next year, experts said.
Symptoms of Alzheimer’s include:
- Forgetting about recent conversations or events
- Forgetting the names of places and objects
- Confusion, disorientation and getting lost in familiar places
- Difficulty planning or making decisions
- Problems with speech and language
- Problems moving around without assistance or performing self-care tasks
- Personality changes, such as becoming aggressive, demanding and suspicious of others
- Hallucinations and delusions
- Low mood or anxiety.
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