Alzheimer’s FDA-approved blood test may soon be on the way

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the leading causes of death in the US, and while there is currently no FDA-approved blood test for the neurodegenerative condition, new research from the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine suggests that one may soon be on the way.
As Dr. Robert Nagele explained Sunday at the Osteopathic Medical Conference & Exposition in Orlando, he and his colleagues are nearing development of a blood test that can accurately tell if the disease is present in a patient, enabling doctors to treat the condition in its earliest stages.
Their test makes it possible to detect Alzheimer’s before symptoms emerge by using autoantibodies as biomarkers in the blood. These autoantibodies can not only detect the presence of the disease, but also the stage to which it has progressed, enabling those patients who have the Alzheimer’s biomarkers to make lifestyle changes that could slow the disease’s development.
“Many of the same conditions that lead to vascular disease are also significant risk factors for Alzheimer’s,” Dr. Nagele said in a statement. “People found to have preclinical disease can take steps to improve their vascular health, including watching their diet, exercising and managing any weight and blood pressure issues to help stave off or slow disease progression.”
Autoantibodies could enable detection before symptoms arise
While Alzheimer’s disease affects more than five million Americans, the cause is unknown. It is clear, however, that maintaining a healthy blood-brain barrier can go a long way to preventing it, the researchers explained. Diabetes, stroke, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and an excessively high BMI all endanger vascular health.
As a person ages, the blood vessels in their brains become weak or more brittle, causing them to leak and allowing brain-reactive autoantibodies and other plasma components to reach the brain. Once there, these autoantibodies can bind to neurons, causing the accumulation of beta amyloid deposits–one of the telltale signs of impending Alzheimer’s–to accelerate.
Since Alzheimer’s-related brain changes typically occur years before the first symptoms emerge, the new blood test would enable at-risk patients to make lifestyle choices or begin being treated by their doctors before becoming symptomatic, Dr. Nagele’s team said. Ideally, this would allow people with preclinical Alzheimer’s to delay or completely avoid the worst of the symptoms.
“As osteopathic physicians, we constantly tell patients that a healthy lifestyle is the best medicine for preventing disease,” said Dr. Jennifer Caudle, an assistant professor of family medicine at Rowan University. “I can’t think of a single patient who wouldn’t take steps to prevent the progression of Alzheimer’s if they could directly affect their prognosis.”
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