Alzheimer's disease progresses from an early aggregation of amyloid-β in brain tissue and mild cognitive symptoms to a later and much more harmful combination of inflammation and tau aggregation in brain tissue. A few years ago, researchers reported that measuring a tau species known as MTBR-tau243 in blood could be used to assess the state of this progression of Alzheimer's disease, and did so as accurately as more expensive brain imaging approaches. Here find an update on this approach to testing and its continued validation in patients at various stages of the progression of Alzheimer's disease.
Several blood tests for Alzheimer's disease are already clinically available. Such tests help doctors diagnose the disease in people with cognitive symptoms, but do not indicate the clinical stage of the disease symptoms - that is, the degree of impairment in thinking or memory due to Alzheimer's dementia. Current Alzheimer's therapies are most effective in early stages of the disease, so having a relatively easy and reliable way to gauge how far the disease has progressed could help doctors determine which patients are likely to benefit from drug treatment and to what extent.
In a new study, the researchers found that levels of a protein called MTBR-tau243 in the blood accurately reflect the amount of toxic accumulation of tau aggregates in the brain and correlate with the severity of Alzheimer's disease. Analyzing blood levels of MTBR-tau243 from a group of people with cognitive decline, the researchers were able to distinguish between people with early- or later-stage Alzheimer's disease and separate both groups of Alzheimer's patients from people whose symptoms were caused by something other than Alzheimer's disease.
Link: https://medicine.was...nt-of-dementia/
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