Study of Alzheimer鈥檚 patients launched in bid to find early test
A new study by scientists at PharmaKure - a UK based pharmaceutical company spun out from The University of 野狼社区 -is to examine blood biomarkers in Alzheimer鈥檚 disease patients.
The study of the patients tested by either PET brain imaging or amyloid deposits in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) aims to identify a blood test which could help with earlier diagnosis of the disease.
Certain blood biomarkers of amyloid-飦� (Total, A飦�40 and A飦�42), aggregated 伪-synuclein, aggregated Tau (Total and pTAU (181), NFL and DJ-1 have been associated with Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease pathology.
The study is to evaluate the relationship of all these aggregated forms of biomarkers, including oligomers in the blood, to historical PET scan and CSF findings.
Launched this month (October 2022), participants of the study will be aged 50 to 80, who have had an Amyloid PET scan or CSF Amyloid assessment in the last five years that diagnosed the disease.
Our hope is this study may lead to a blood test which could help with earlier diagnosis of this disease
Dr Farid Khan, CEO at PharmaKure said: 鈥淓very three seconds someone in the world develops dementia. 850,000 in the UK and 44 million worldwide suffer from Alzheimer鈥檚 or dementia related illnesses and this takes a terrible toll on patients and their families.
鈥淭he current annual societal and economic cost of dementia is estimated as$1 trillion, an amount that is expected to double by 2030 unless we find a way to slow the disease.
鈥淥ur hope is this study may lead to a blood test which could help with earlier diagnosis of this disease.
鈥淭hat could lead to better health outcomes, lower health system costs and improved quality of life of patients by offering treatments earlier.鈥�
Professor Andrew Doig of The University of manchester and co-founder of PharmaKure said: 鈥淏lood tests give further understanding of Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease pathology and an insight into formulating strategies for improving clinical outcomes by selecting future treatments that are tailored to the right patient group.
鈥淚n the progression of Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease, it is not clear whether blood biomarkers are associated with brain imaging scans or amyloid in the CSF. This study could enable us to learn how to get early warning signs of cognitive decline in blood.鈥�
Alzheimer's disease is a fatal illness that causes progressive decline in memory and other aspects of cognition. It is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of all cases.
In 2020, the total cost of cost of care for people with dementia in the UK was 拢34.7 billion. Globally, the cost was $360 billion and by 2050 the costs could be a $1 trillion according to Alzheimer鈥檚 Research UK.
In the US alone, there was an increase of 8 million new caregivers from 2015 to 2020.