Hong Kong scientists develop simple blood test for early detection of Alzheimer's disease

HONG KONG, June 28 (Xinhua) -- An international research team led by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed a simple but robust blood test for the early detection and screening of Alzheimer's disease (AD), with an accuracy level of over 96 percent, the HKUST announced Monday.

According to researchers from the HKUST, currently, doctors mainly rely on cognitive tests to diagnose a person with AD. Besides clinical assessment, brain imaging and lumbar puncture are the two most commonly used medical procedures to detect changes in the brain caused by AD. However, these methods are expensive, invasive, and frequently unavailable in many countries, they noted.

The team led by Nancy Ip, vice-president of the HKUST, has identified 19 out of the 429 plasma proteins associated with AD to form a biomarker panel representative of an "AD signature" in the blood. Based on this panel, the team has developed a scoring system that distinguishes AD patients from healthy people with more than 96 percent accuracy.

The new system can also differentiate among the early, intermediate, and late stages of AD, and can be used to monitor the progression of the disease over time. These findings have led to the development of a high-performance, blood-based test for AD, and may also pave the way to novel therapeutic treatments for the disease.

The work was conducted in collaboration with researchers at University College London and clinicians in Hong Kong hospitals. The discovery was made by examining the levels of over 1,000 proteins in the plasma of AD patients in Hong Kong.

The research has recently been published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.