According to a reporter in Hong Kong (China), the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) announced on February 19 that an international research team led by the university has successfully developed a blood testing technique that can early detect Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment with accuracy rates of over 96% and 87%, respectively.
According to HKUST researchers, one of the main characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease is the accumulation of harmful amyloid plaques in the brain, which disrupts brain cell function. Measuring amyloid levels can only be performed through expensive brain imaging or invasive collection methods. Currently, diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease mainly relies on observing clinical symptoms, but these symptoms typically appear 10 to 20 years after the disease onset, by which time the disease has progressed to the mid to late stages, making effective treatment challenging.
The blood test for Alzheimer’s developed by the HKUST team is very simple and effective. (Illustrative image).
The research team from HKUST recently studied a blood testing method that can early detect Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment with high accuracy. The team affirmed that the blood test is highly accurate in distinguishing between individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, and those with normal cognition, while also being able to detect amyloid pathology in the brain.
Specifically, the blood testing technique developed by HKUST can simultaneously detect changes in the levels of 21 protein biomarkers in the blood related to Alzheimer’s disease, thereby allowing for more accurate detection of Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment, and closely monitoring the progression of these conditions.
Professor Nancy Ip, the President of HKUST, Director of the Hong Kong Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, and the principal investigator, stated that the blood test for Alzheimer’s developed by the HKUST team is very simple, effective, minimally invasive, and can be used to screen appropriate patients for clinical trials and drug treatments, as well as closely monitor disease progression and drug response.
The research was conducted in collaboration with University College London. The recent findings have been published in the Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
