US EditionNew Blood Test Predicts When Alzheimer’s Symptoms Will Begin
The blood test uses plasma p-tau217 to predict Alzheimer’s symptom onset with a three to four year accuracy, aiding targeted preventive trials and treatment planning.
- Thursday's Nature Medicine paper shows researchers at WashU developed a plasma 'clock' using p‑tau217 to estimate Alzheimer’s symptom onset within three to four years.
- Funded by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health Biomarkers Consortium, the project aims to enable earlier biological detection via blood tests to accelerate clinical trials and interventions.
- The team analyzed data from more than 600 people aged 62 to 78 and found plasma p‑tau217 measured with PrecivityAD2 and ADNI assays predicted symptom onset, with a positive result at 60 linked to symptoms 20 years later.
- In the short term, researchers expect the approach to accelerate trials by identifying people likely to develop symptoms soon, but experts including Zaldy Tan, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, caution against testing asymptomatic individuals outside research.
- With dementia costs approaching nearly $400 billion in 2025, researchers urge replication in larger, more diverse populations and note study authors with consulting ties to diagnostic companies.
34 Articles
34 Articles
Alzheimer's 'Clock' Uses Blood Test to Forecast Symptom Onset
(MedPage Today) -- A "clock" model based on a single blood test showed the ability to estimate when cognitively unimpaired individuals will likely develop Alzheimer's disease symptoms, researchers said. The model relies on %p-tau217, a ratio of...
A scientific research published in Nature Medicine magazine in mid-February concluded that blood tests can be used to build a “watch” for Alzheimer’s disease, which could predict when symptoms will develop. Although blood samples can help diagnose the disease, the study reflects how this type of test could play a more important role in prevention and treatment, according to the authors. Researchers created a model that could use blood test resul…
Blood Test Could Tell You When Alzheimer's Symptoms Will Start
Researchers say they're edging closer to a kind of countdown clock for Alzheimer's. A study published Thursday in Nature Medicine reports that a blood test tracking a protein called p-tau217 can estimate when someone is likely to develop symptoms, with a margin of about three to four years, per the...
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