Biomarker blood test can detect early signs of Alzheimer’s disease

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh report using a blood test to identify important clues for determining who is more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Their method relies on blood biomarkers for star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes. The researchers found that searching for signs of astrocyte reactivity in combination with other diagnostic tests could predict whether people without cognitive impairment would progress to symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease.

“Under normal conditions, [astrocytes] These are the cells that make our brains function normally. …but when threatened in the brain, they become over-activated and work harder to compensate. [for] Danger lurks in the brain,” said lead author Bruna Bellaver, a postdoctoral fellow at Pitt University.

Academic journal natural medicine The results of her research team were announced Monday. The article’s authors include researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, McGill University, Canada, and the University of Illinois, Chicago, plus a dozen scientists from the Pitt School of Medicine.

Their findings provided a major breakthrough in the nasty battle against neurological disease. Affects over 6 million people in the United States. Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that usually occurs in people over the age of 65.Usually it is to start It is accompanied by mild amnesia and tends to impair the patient’s ability to hold a conversation and respond to the environment in later life.

The Alzheimer’s Association reports that people with Alzheimer’s have an average life expectancy of 4 to 8 years after diagnosis, although some live as long as 20 years.

Bellaver said the technique she and her colleagues developed would allow doctors to screen patients as young as 50 for astrocyte reactivity.

“The big advantage of using blood to diagnose these patients is [is that] It’s very easy to access,” Bellabar said. To detect other signs of Alzheimer’s disease, doctors must use PET scans, an expensive imaging technique, she said.

For decades, scientists have focused efforts to screen for Alzheimer’s disease on methods that detect the accumulation of amyloid plaques between nerve cells in the brain. They also look for other protein clumps called tau tangles that form inside neurons.

But Pitt’s new research reveals that other brain processes may be equally important in causing deterioration in neuronal function. The study included more than 1,000 people without cognitive impairment, with or without accumulation of amyloid plaques in their brains.

Astrocytes are brain immune cells that provide nutrients and oxygen to nerve cells and protect them from pathogens, Dr. Pitt said in a statement announcing the study. A new study shows that only those who showed both amyloid and astrocyte reactivity showed evidence of advanced tau disease. As a result, they were more likely to develop clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Pitt said in his statement that a significant number of amyloid-positive people do not progress to the clinical form of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Astrocytes coordinate [the] The relationship between brain amyloid and tau is like a conductor leading an orchestra,” Bellaber said in a statement. Because the evidence for astrocyte hyperactivation may reflect astrocyte efforts to combat amyloid damage, Professor Bellaber said her team’s findings were a “game changer” for the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. said it could become She noted that researchers still need to validate her findings.

Pitt said in a statement that continued research into astrocytic reactivity will influence future clinical trials of Alzheimer’s drug candidates by facilitating early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. In July, UPMC physicians will have the option to screen patients for astrocyte reactivity as part of Pitt’s research into medical applications of this phenomenon.