Alzheimer’s Could Be Detected Years Earlier with Blood Test, Scientists Discover

Scientists in Germany have discovered that a protein found in the blood could help detect Alzheimer’s disease progression years before the first clinical symptoms – offering new potential for testing therapies.

“The fact that there is still no effective treatment for Alzheimer’s is partly because current therapies start much too late,” explains Mathias Jucker, a senior researcher at the German Centre for Neurogenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Tübingen and at the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research (HIH).

The discovery by the scientists from the DZNE, HIH and the University Hospital Tübingen offers a new wave of possibilities through a simple blood test – a cheaper and more reliable strategy than, for example, brain scans – allowing for the monitoring and predicting of the disease’s progress before memory changes even occur.