Towards a Blood Test for Alzheimer's Disease
Progress towards a non-invasive test for Alzheimer's disease: "Reliability and failure to replicate initial results have been the biggest challenge in this field. We demonstrate here that it is possible to show consistent findings. ... [Researchers] measured the levels of 190 proteins in the blood of 600 study participants [including] healthy volunteers and those who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). MCI, often considered a harbinger for Alzheimer's disease, causes a slight but measurable decline in cognitive abilities. A subset of the 190 protein levels (17) were significantly different in people with MCI or Alzheimer's. When those markers were checked against data from 566 people participating in the multicenter Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, only four markers remained: apolipoprotein E, B-type natriuretic peptide, C-reactive protein and pancreatic polypeptide. Changes in levels of these four proteins in blood also correlated with measurements from the same patients of the levels of proteins [beta-amyloid] in cerebrospinal fluid that previously have been connected with Alzheimer's. The analysis grouped together people with MCI, who are at high risk of developing Alzheimer's, and full Alzheimer's. ... Though a blood test to identify underlying Alzheimer's disease is not quite ready for prime time given today's technology, we now have identified ways to make sure that a test will be reliable."
Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-08/eu-btf080912.php
I'm sorry but who really cares about a test to tell you if you have Alzheimer's Disease? Why is anyone spending time on this instead of searching for a cure. In my opinion, this is money wasted. Put the money toward searching for a cure. Can you imagine have to wait for the results of one of these tests, if there is no treatment? Who would want that information? If nothing can be done about it, then I don't want to know if I have it.
Isn't this supposed disease called Alzheimer's actually just an accumulation of a lifetime of damage and insult to the brain. Hasn't it been demonstrated that both memory and the size of the brain can be expanded as we age (using the correct protocols)?
Let's not waste time on useless tests. I think we can all tell when someone is having problems with their memory. Let's start spending time on treatments/cures.
@Mark: advances in testing are of interest here because Alzheimer's has no current good inexpensive, non-invasive test. Having a cheap non-invasive test should make it less costly to work on the condition across the board for reasons relating to organization, identification of study groups, classification of patients with particular profiles in the progression of the condition, etc. It's infrastructure.
I believe there is a faulty assumption at play here, which is to say that Alzheimer's is really a disease, rather than a collection of accumulated damage to the brain over a person's lifetime. I believe there is some debate as to this and whether or not Alzheimer's is even a singular disease that is detectable.
We already know that there are many things that can be done to make an aging brain better (and probably even more than we are currently aware of). Let's focus time and money in these areas instead of using bright minds to tell us things about patients that we already know.
In the past months, there have been reports of several breakthroughs which have help improve Alzheimer's like symptoms in mice (I believe Curcumin is at the heart of much of these studies). This is worthwhile to pursue. Also, why are there certain areas of the world where people don't get Alzheimer's? There is a strong lifestyle link. Forget about the testing.