Protein blood test as effective as spinal fluid analysis for diagnosing Alzheimer's

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-01-23 03:00

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Testing people's blood for a protein linked to Alzheimer's disease called tau is just as effective for diagnosing the condition as analysing their spinal fluid, and less expensive and invasive, according to international scientists. They used a commercially available tau test on 786 people with an average age of around 66, and say it was highly accurate at predicting high levels of beta-amyloid - the protein that forms clumps in Alzheimer's patients' brains. Brain scans were used to confirm the presence of beta-amyloid in the brains of participants who the test suggested had Alzheimer's.

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conference: JAMA Neurology

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Organisation/s: Gothenburg University, Sweden

Funder: ALZpath provided the materials for this study at no cost. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants (1R01AG056850-01A1; R21AG056974 and R01AG061566 to Dr Lleó) and Department de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Pla Estratègic de Recerca I Innovació en Salut (SLT006/17/00119 to Dr Fortea; SLT002/16/00408 to Dr Lleó; SLT006/ 17/125 to Dr Alcolea). It was also supported by Horizon 2020–Research and Innovation Framework Programme from the European Union (H2020-SC1-BHC-2018-2020 to Dr Fortea). Drs Lleó, Alcolea, and Fortea were supported by the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitario, Carlos III Health Institute (PI20/01330 to Dr Lleó, PI18/00435 and INT19/00016 to Dr Alcolea, PI20/01473 to Dr Fortea) and the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED) Program 1. Dr Blennow is supported by the Swedish Research Council (2017-00915 and 2022-00732), Swedish Alzheimer Foundation (AF-930351, AF-939721, and AF-968270), Hjärnfonden, Sweden (FO2017-0243 and ALZ2022-0006), Swedish state under the agreement between the Swedish government and the County Councils, ALF-agreement (ALFGBG-715986 and ALFGBG-965240), European Union Joint Program for Neurodegenerative Disorders (JPND2019-466-236), Alzheimer’s Association 2021 Zenith Award (ZEN-21-848495), and Alzheimer’s Association 2022-2025 grant (SG-23-1038904 QC). Dr Zetterberg is aWallenberg Scholar supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council (2022-01018 and 2019-02397), European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (grant agreement 101053962), Swedish State Support for Clinical Research (ALFGBG-71320), Alzheimer Drug Discovery Foundation (201809-2016862), AD Strategic Fund, and Alzheimer’s Association (ADSF-21-831376-C, ADSF-21-831381-C, and ADSF-21-831377-C), Bluefield Project, Olav Thon Foundation, Erling-Persson Family Foundation, Stiftelsen för Gamla Tjänarinnor, Hjärnfonden, Sweden (FO2022-0270), European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement 860197, MIRIADE), European Union Joint Programme– Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND2021-00694), National Institute for Health and Care Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, and UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL (UKDRI-1003). The Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention is supported by NIH grants AG027161 and AG021155.

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