The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first blood test to aid in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease – an advancement that could dramatically improve how and when patients are diagnosed. Michal Schnaider Beeri, director of the Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center within the Rutgers Brain Health Institute, commented that the Lumipulse blood test marks a major milestone in efforts to diagnose the disease more easily.
“Previously, confirming a diagnosis often required costly brain imaging or invasive procedures, which could be barriers for many patients,” Schnaider Beeri said. Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that impacts memory, cognition, and behavior, with symptoms eventually reaching a level where they disrupt daily activities.
Unlike expensive positron emission tomography (PET) scans or invasive lumbar punctures, the new blood test measures the ratio of two proteins, pTau217 and ß-Amyloid 1-42, which are implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. “This blood test offers a simpler, less invasive, and more widely accessible way to support accurate detection of amyloid plaques and tau tangles, two of the main pathological markers of Alzheimer’s disease,” Schnaider Beeri said. To read the full story.