Two blood molecules may predict the development of Alzheimer's disease

The levels of two molecules in the blood may predict future cognitive decline and the development of Alzheimer's disease in patients with mild cognitive impairment, according to a new study of neurodegenerative diseases published in nature-aging, a professional academic journal of Springer Nature. The two molecules are phosphatized tau (P-tau181) and nerve wire light chain (NfL) on suline-181 bits, respectively.The findings may help develop routine blood tests to track the progression of Alzheimer's disease in high-risk groups.Globally, there are about 50 million people with Alzheimer's disease, accounting for 50-70% of all dementia cases, according to the paper. Alzheimer's disease is characterized by proteins thought to cause neuron death to aggregate in the brain and eventually develop dementia. New research has found that these proteins are also present in the blood, and tests to detect their concentration in plasma can be used to diagnose the disease or to distinguish it from other common forms of dementia.The paper's co-author, Oskar Hansson of Lund University in Sweden, and colleagues used data from 573 patients with mild cognitive impairment in two separate cohorts to establish and validate individualized risk models to predict cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease development. At the same time, the accuracy of multiple models predicting cognitive decline and dementia progression over a four-year span was compared, based on various combinations of different biomarkers in the blood. They found that models based on P-tau181, a form of tau protein, and NfL, which reflect neuron death and injury, were the best predictive.The authors conclude that their findings demonstrate the value of individually predicting progression of Alzheimer's disease through blood-based biomarkers. However, further large-level queue studies are needed.
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China News
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