Proteins may predict who will get dementia 10 years later, study finds
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[February 13, 2024]
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A study of frozen blood samples has turned up a
trove of proteins that may predict several forms of dementia more than
10 years before the disease is diagnosed, researchers from the U.K. and
China reported on Monday.
The study, published in the journal Nature Aging, is part of ongoing
research from multiple teams to identify patients at risk for dementia
using a simple blood test, an advance many scientists believe will
accelerate the development of new treatments.
Currently, brain scans can detect abnormal levels of a protein called
beta amyloid many years before Alzheimer's dementia develops, but the
tests are costly and often not covered by insurance.
"Based on this study, it does seem likely that blood tests will be
developed that can predict risk for developing dementia over the next 10
years, although individuals at higher risk often have difficulty knowing
how to respond," said Dr. Suzanne Schindler, an Alzheimer's researcher
at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the
research.
Study author Jian-Feng Feng of Fudan University in Shanghai said such
tests are critical in aging populations such as China's, and noted that
he is in talks for potential commercial development of a blood test
based on their research
In the study, researchers at the University of Warwick and Fudan
University studied 52,645 blood samples from the U.K.'s Biobank research
repository, collected between 2006 and 2010 from people who had no signs
of dementia at the time.
Of these, 1,417 people eventually developed Alzheimer's disease,
vascular dementia or dementia from any cause. The researchers studied
protein signatures common in these individuals and turned up 1,463
proteins associated with dementia and ranked these according to how
likely they were to predict dementia.
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A scientist looks at hypometabolic and hypoperfusion patterns at the
single-subject level from a patient suffering from Alzheimer's
disease at the Memory Centre at the Department of Readaptation and
Geriatrics of the University Hospital (HUG), in Geneva, Switzerland,
June 6, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
They found that people whose blood
carried higher levels of the proteins GFAP, NEFL, GDF15 and LTBP2
were consistently more likely to have developed Alzheimer's disease,
vascular dementia or dementia from any cause. People with elevated
levels of GFAP were 2.32 times more likely to develop dementia,
confirming findings from smaller studies that had pointed to the
contribution of this protein.
The authors noted that their research has not been independently
validated.
One protein that performed well in predicting dementia,
neurofilament light, is already used in the clinic for diagnosing
and monitoring some conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Schindler
said in an email.
"This study did not include clinically available blood tests for
Alzheimer disease, which likely would even better predict
development of dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease," she said.
Such tests are already being used in identifying candidates for
clinical trials testing treatments in patients with early-stage or
even presymptomatic disease, such as Eisai and Biogen's Leqembi. The
drug recently won regulatory approval in the United States, Japan
and China.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; additional reporting by
Andrew Silver in Shanghai; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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