Katharina Buczek
According to the National Library of Medicine, about 6.2 million Americans over the age of sixty-five are currently living with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).
This number is expected to grow to 13.8 million by 2060, “barring the development of medical breakthroughs to prevent, slow or cure AD.”
Early indicators of the disease include memory loss, challenges in problem-solving, and general confusion. However, these first clinically-identifiable symptoms are often revealed way too late.
In fact, patients with AD are typically symptom-free for fifteen to twenty years before they are eventually diagnosed with the disease.
So, discovering the presence of AD during that nearly two decades-long symptom-free period would significantly increase patients’ treatment options and outcomes.
Miraculously, a new research study conducted by Professor Klaus Gerwert– the founding director of the Center for Protein Diagnostics (PRODI)– and the German Cancer Research Center has found a way to detect AD up to seventeen years before symptoms first reveal themselves.
Once AD begins, a protein biomarker known as amyloid-beta starts to misfold. This misfolding is what causes brain deposits, or plaques, to develop as AD progresses– a well-known characteristic of the disease.
Instead of relying on the brain deposits to identify the presence of AD after their formation, though, the research team has discovered a way to identify the protein misfolding before it can cause irreparable damage.
They were able to detect the protein’s misfolding in blood samples using an immuno-infrared sensor– which could lead to an earlier diagnosis of up to seventeen years.
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