The early stages of the disease occur before the stage of irreversible dementia and this is the “window of opportunity” for interventions and prevention.
Chinese scientists announced that they found a sensitive biomarker in urine, which can reveal the disease Alzheimer’s early stage, potentially paving the way for a new cheap and quick urine test. The incurable neurodegenerative condition is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, so new ways of diagnosing it early are being sought.
Researchers from the Department of Gerontology of the Sixth People’s Hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who made the relevant publication in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, studied a total of 574 people. It involved a group of Alzheimer’s patients at different stages of the disease, as well as a control group of healthy individuals, in order to detect differences in their urine biomarkers. Eventually it was found that formic acid is a good marker of cognitive decline that can bring to light the early stages of the disease.
The scientists pointed out that “Alzheimer’s disease can develop and last for many years before cognitive decline becomes apparent. The early stages of the disease occur before the stage of irreversible dementia and this is the “window of opportunity” for interventions and prevention. Therefore, it is necessary to have a large-scale diagnostic screening of the elderly for the diagnosis of early-stage Alzheimer’s.”
To date, diagnostic methods are expensive, invasive and unsuitable for mass checks. They include positron emission tomography (PET) of the brain, which exposes the examinee to radiation and is expensive, and blood tests taken from the cerebrospinal fluid, a difficult procedure.
A urine test test would be the ideal alternative for controlling a large part of the population. In the past, scientists have identified biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease in urine, but none were suitable as markers of the early stages of the disease, which appears to be the case with formic acid, a metabolite of formaldehyde.
The new research found that formic acid levels are significantly elevated in all Alzheimer’s patients, at all stages of the disease, even early. In fact, when this urinary biomarker is combined with other Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers obtained from blood tests, then the prediction of the stage of the disease becomes more accurate. The Chinese researchers said they will now focus their attention on formic acid and its link to Alzheimer’s.
See the scientific publication
RES-EMP
Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have a vast amount of experience in covering health news. I am also an author at News Bulletin 247. I am highly experienced and knowledgeable in this field. I am a hard worker and always deliver quality work. I am a reliable source of information and always provide accurate information.
