A new blood test can accurately predict if a person will develop a mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease within the next three years, a new study found.
Using blood-based biomarkers, the test identifies 10 fats in the bloodstream that can determine onset of the disease with 90 percent accuracy.
About 35.6 million people suffer from Alzheimer's, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and the number will double every 20 years. There is no cure, but this simple test could lead to other diagnostic tools.
"Our novel blood test offers the potential to identify people at risk for progressive cognitive decline and can change how patients, their families and treating physicians plan for and manage the disorder," said Dr. Howard J. Federoff, professor of neurology and executive vice president for health sciences at Georgetown University Medical Center, in a statement.
Researchers took blood samples from 525 healthy participants over 70 years of age, and found that 74 of them developed Alzheimer's disease (AD) or another disease, amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), in which memory loss is prominent. Also, unbeknownst to the study's team, they would discover the 10 lipids, or fats, that determine the onset of these cognitive diseases. They found that these fats reveal the breakdown of neural cell membranes in participants who develop symptoms of cognitive impairment or AD.
The APOE4 gene is also a known risk factor for developing Alzheimer's, and was investigated in the study. But its presence had not effect, positive or negative, on the blood test. This blood test actually better predicted dementia risk than the APOE4 test alone.
Currently PET scans or MRIs are used to diagnose dementia, but this new blood test is less expensive and much easier to administer.
"Blood-based biomarkers would be a great and useful option -- more accessible, less invasive, easier to gather and less expensive to process," Maria Carrillo, vice president of medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer's Association said in a Philly report. "Several are under development for preclinical Alzheimer's disease. More research investment in this area is urgently needed."
