New Test Tracks Alzheimer’s Protein Clumps in Blood
For decades, scientists have been researching ways to detect dementia in its early stages to provide older adults with resources that can improve their quality of life and slow their cognitive decline.
Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other types of dementia are not easy to detect early on because the neurodegenerative diseases develop quietly and gradually over many years.
What’s more, individuals usually do not show symptoms of dementia in the early stages, even though the toxins causing dementia continue to build up in their brains. By the time memory loss, mood changes, and other dementia symptoms manifest, damage to the brain has already occurred.
Since early hidden changes in the brain are nearly impossible to detect with existing methods, chemists at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, their international colleagues, and other research institutes wanted to find a new method to tackle the problem.
Their hard work paid off. The researchers developed a ground-breaking fluorescent peptide that can detect and “paint” protein clumps, also known as amyloid fibrils, associated with different types of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease. The FibrilPaint is made up of molecules that bind to protein clumps that accumulate in the brains of people with dementia.
FibrilPaint not only makes dementia-related protein clumps visible but also measures their length to show disease progression. What’s significant about this is that the method provides detailed tracking of the disease and allows for treatment to start before symptoms appear or the disease worsens.
And that’s not all. The novel FibrilPaint allows amyloid fibrils to be measured directly in blood or spinal fluid. Normally, extensive pre-treatment steps are required to reliably measure these proteins.
“We could already see such fibrils under an electron microscope, but this method is not suitable to monitor body fluids,” Stefan Rüdiger, Professor of Protein Chemistry of Disease at Utrecht University, said in a press release. “With FibrilPaint, we can now follow their growth step by step in liquid form.”
Why Early Detection is Important
Health experts and organizations that support people with dementia and their caregivers say early detection is essential because older adults can:
Promptly receive treatment that can slow the progression of a disease, or even reverse symptoms.
Connect with vital support and resources.
Plan for the future (legal, financial, care) with their families.
Manage other medical conditions
Address driving and safety concerns
Ultimately, an early diagnosis allows older adults and their families to educate themselves about the disease, find resources and support that can help them improve their care and quality of life.
What is Dementia?
Dementia is not a disease, but an umbrella term that describes a decline in mental ability that interferes with daily life. The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, which affects nearly 6.7 million people aged 65 and older in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This number is expected to double to 14 million by 2060.
While there are different types of dementia, individuals share similar symptoms such as memory loss, confusion, trouble with problem-solving, and changes in behavior. As symptoms worsen, it becomes difficult for individuals to carry out their daily living activities.
Each type of dementia has a different cause. For example, studies suggest that the amyloid protein and the tau protein are major causes of Alzheimer’s disease. Finding a way to detect amyloid fibrils was an essential part of the Utrecht research team’s work.
“Almost all central proteins in various neurodegenerative diseases, from Alzheimer’s to Huntington’s, form amyloid structures,” Júlia Aragonès Pedrola, co-first author and biochemist at Utrecht University, told C2W International. “Because FibrilPaint does not bind to a specific protein, but to the fibrils themselves, it can be used to detect all of these conditions.”
FibrilPaint May Be Used In Clinical Trials
Since publishing their research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, the Utrecht research team has been working to bring FibrilPaint into the healthcare system. The researchers established a start-up company called NeuroTidal Diagnostics, and Dekker is CEO. The goal is to use the new technique in clinical trials for dementia medications.
“Our technique will eventually allow us to follow the course of the disease much more accurately and see whether a treatment really works,” Françoise Dekker, a chemist at Utrecht, said in a press release.
Rüdiger considers the strong interest in FibrilPaint a personal milestone.
“Three years ago, I described the idea for FibrilPaint when applying for a major research grant, Rüdiger said in a press release. “It was rejected at the time for being too ambitious. But I persevered and sought other ways to develop FibrilPaint. Reaching this point now feels like a real milestone.”
Source Links:
https://www.technologynetworks.com/proteomics/news/chemists-develop-blood-test-method-to-detect-dementia-earlier-406272
https://www.sciencelink.net/news/measuring-dementia-threads-with-peptide-dyes/22996.article
https://www.cdc.gov/alzheimers-dementia/about/index.html
https://www.alz.org/getmedia/0d723a7f-0c41-4834-9f71-6e6f3c799c74/alzheimers-early-detection-diagnosis-ph-fs.pdf
https://wai.wisc.edu/benefits-of-early-diagnosis/
