Now it is possible to see how much Alzheimer’s disease is in the brain.
The researchers hope that the discovery can facilitate when new Alzheimer medicine is introduced in Europe.
“The hope is that it will be easier to find the right patients,” says Oskar Hansson, professor of neurology at Lund University.
A newly discovered marker in the blood can show how much Alzheimer’s a patient has in his brain. In the past, it has only been possible to see with a blood test if a person can develop the disease 15 to 20 years before the symptoms begin to develop slowly. But with the new discovery, you can give a safer diagnosis to a patient who is probably already ill.
– When a certain protein called Tau develops, the nerve cells do not work and then you get problems with memory. This new marker reflects just how many “tau lumps” you have in the brain, it tells how far the disease has come. When it begins to change, it is very likely that this is what causes the patient’s symptoms, says Oskar Hansson.
Safer diagnosis
The study is done by researchers at Lund University and Washington University.
The new discovery gives hope for the new Alzheimer drugs that are on the way. Simply put, these are brake medications that, with the help of antibodies, erase a protein that is formed in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease. The upcoming medicines will slow down the course of the disease by 30 percent.
– There are these disease braking drugs now that have been approved in many different countries, one of the recently recently. Sweden may not subsidize it, but it will be approved. Then of course it should only be given to those who have symptoms of Alzheimer’s, now you can use two blood tests to find the right patients, says Oskar Hansson.
Provides hope for the future
With the two blood tests, it is thought that the diagnosis in primary care is improved. But Oskar Hansson also wants to see simpler, digital tests that can be performed at health centers or even on patients’ phones.
In the longer term, you want to find individuals who do not have symptoms of Alzheimer’s but will be ill within about a five -year period.