A Blood Test Could Predict Dementia Ten Years Before Its Onset: What We Know

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 55 million people are living with dementia worldwide.

According to a new study, a specific type of protein present in Alzheimer's patients can be detected even before any symptoms appear.

(Photo: The Quint)

Thanks to a group of researchers in the UK and China, it might soon be possible to detect dementia with a simple blood test years before the symptoms show up.

According to a study published in the medical journal, Nature Ageing,  a protein profile blood test could help predict the onset of dementia more than 10 years before the disease is diagnosed.

Read on to know how the test works.

Big points from the study: The study was conducted over four years, between 2006 and 2010, and used 52,645 blood samples from the U.K.'s Biobank research repository from people who had no signs of dementia at the time.

Of these, 1,417 people eventually developed some type of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. The researchers found that all the blood samples of these people had elevated levels of four types of protein.

How does it work? People with elevated levels of GFAP, NEFL, GDF15 and LTBP2 protein were consistently found to have a higher chance of eventually developing Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia or dementia from any cause.

Analysing the change in the protein profiles of a person in tandem with other risk factors such as age, sex, and genetic susceptibility, the study researchers found that it's possible to predict dementia with an estimated 90 percent accuracy years before the point of clinical diagnosis.

Why Does It Matter? Currently, it's possible to predict the onset of dementia a few years in advance with the help of brain scans, but these can be expensive with limited accessibility.

This blood test, on the other hand, provides a simpler, more accessible and less expensive diagnostic technique for identifying early signs of the degenerative condition.

Moreover, such tests could prove especially helpful in countries with an ageing population, according to study author Jian-Feng Feng of Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

The bigger picture: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), currently there are over 55 million people living with dementia worldwide. According to experts, this figure is set to reach 78 million by 2030.

Generally, by the time symptoms of dementia are detected, it's too late, making it difficult to manage. But if the degenerative condition can be predicted years before its onset, it might be possible to slow its progress or at the very least effectively prepare to mitigate the damage.