Key Summary
- Scientists have shown Alzheimer’s can be detected with a simple finger-prick blood test done at home
- The method worked accurately without hospital visits, scans or spinal tests
- It could make testing easier, cheaper and accessible to more people in future
A new global study, involving US-based Banner Health and University of Exeter, has shown that Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers can be detected using a simple blood test.
Alzheimer’s disease is usually confirmed through brain scans or spinal fluid tests, which are invasive and expensive.
The study published in Nature Medicine, validates that blood samples that can be collected at home and mailed to laboratories without refrigeration or prior processing can be used to detect Alzheimer’s disease.
The DROP-AD project, involving seven medical centres in Europe, collected blood samples from 337 people and demonstrated that key markers of Alzheimer’s pathology and brain damage can be accurately measured.
This breakthrough helps eliminate the logistical constraints that have historically limited biomarker studies to well-resourced medical facilities.
This method of diagnosis identified biomarkers like p-tau217, which is a protein related to Alzheimer’s pathology along with other markers such as GFAP and NfL.
The University of Exeter declared, “The study found that levels of p-tau217 in finger-prick samples closely matched results from standard blood tests and were able to identify Alzheimer’s disease-related changes in spinal fluid with an accuracy of 86 per cent.”
The University of Exeter Medical School recruited participants from the PROTECT-UK study, who successfully collected their own finger-prick samples without the guidance of study personnel after watching trained staff and receiving written instructions.
Professor Nicholas Ashton, senior director of Banner’s Fluid Biomarker Program and lead investigator of the study, said this could change the way Alzheimer’s research is conducted.
“While we’re still years away from clinical use, we’re opening doors to research that was previously impossible - studying diverse populations, conducting large-scale screening studies, and including communities that have been historically underrepresented in Alzheimer’s studies.”
The UK research was supported by the NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Brain Health, and the Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula.
