Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London have developed a blood-based test that can detect Alzheimer’s disease up to 3.5 years before clinical diagnosis.
The study, which was published in the journal Brain, discovered that components in human blood can either increase or decrease the process of neurogenesis, or the body’s ability to generate new brain cells. Neurogenesis occurs in the hippocampus part of the brain, which leads to learning and memory.
“Previous studies have shown that blood from young mice can have a rejuvenating effect on the cognition of old mice by promoting hippocampal neurogenesis. This gave us the idea to model the process of neurogenesis in a dish using human brain cells and human blood,” said Professor Sandrine Thuret, lead author of the study. , in a press release about the study.
“In our research, we aim to use this model to understand the process of neurogenesis and use changes in this process to predict Alzheimer’s disease and find the first evidence in humans that the body’s circulatory system can influence the brain’s ability to form new cells.”
As part of the study, researchers collected blood samples over several years from 56 participants with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), which is “a condition in which a person will begin to experience worsening memory or cognitive abilities.” Of these 56 participants, 36 would later receive a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
By treating brain cells with blood taken from people with MCI, researchers were able to explore “how the cells change in response to blood as Alzheimer’s disease progresses,” said Dr. Aleksandra Maruszak, one of the first authors of the study.
The researchers found that blood samples collected from participants who eventually developed Alzheimer’s had decreased cell growth and division and increased cell death. Previously, researchers could only study neurogenesis in the late stages of Alzheimer’s after autopsy, but this study could allow a non-invasive blood test to follow the progression of the disease by looking at various biomarkers.
“Our discovery is very important, it can allow us to predict the onset of Alzheimer’s in a non-invasive way,” said Dr. Edina Silajdžić, first author of the study. “This could complement other blood-based biomarkers that reflect classic signs of the disease, such as amyloid accumulation and tau (the ‘main’ protein of Alzheimer’s disease).”
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