We still can’t diagnose diseases like Alzheimer’s with a blood test, despite decades of trying. But scientists are getting closer.
Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) are working on a blood test called the APEX system, which took two years to develop, to detect an early-stage molecular marker of the brain-robbing disease — the aggregated amyloid beta (Aβ). Their findings were published in the journal Nature.
“There is currently no good blood-based method to effectively screen and monitor [Alzheimer’s Disease], and new tests that are under investigation have either poor accuracy or low sensitivity,” says Shao Huilin, assistant professor at the NUS Institute for Health Innovation & Technology, in a statement. “The APEX technology addresses both of these limitations.”
The buildup of amyloid beta proteins in the brain is a key marker of Alzheimer’s, according to the researchers. The APEX test is designed “to detect and analyze the earliest aggregated forms of [Aβ] proteins in blood samples, to enable detection of AD even before clinical symptoms appear and to accurately classify the disease stages,” they said. Click here to continue reading
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