simple blood test One day, it may function as a molecular “clock” that predicts not just whether someone will develop the disease. alzheimer’s disease —But then.

Test published in natural medicine February 19th¹is based on an abnormal form of a protein called tau that circulates in the blood and begins to accumulate in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients long before symptoms such as memory loss appear. If validated in large-scale studies, this test could provide a way to intervene in neurodegenerative diseases at an earlier stage, when treatments are more likely to be effective.

It also has the potential to make clinical trials of potential Alzheimer’s disease treatments easier and cheaper by providing measurable biological markers, or “biomarkers.” “Predicting whether and when a patient is likely to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease could help design trials of interventions to prevent or delay the onset of symptoms,” said Howard Fink, a physician at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health System in Minnesota.

But until more research is complete, people shouldn’t get tested themselves, said Suzanne Schindler, a neurologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, and lead author of the study. (Home blood tests for the tau type, which this study focuses on, are available to consumers.) “At this time, we do not recommend that people without cognitive impairment undergo Alzheimer’s disease biomarker testing,” Schindler added.

assemble a ticking clock

Abnormal tau protein can form tangled fibers that interfere with communication between nerve cells in the brain. Brain imaging tests that detect tangled tau are sometimes used to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, and preliminary research suggests such tests may be able to predict when Alzheimer’s symptoms will appear.^2,3.

But imaging technology is cumbersome and expensive, Schindler said. Meanwhile, researchers have been exploring simpler blood-based tests that can also track tau.