A new study titled “Blood Biomarkers to Detect Alzheimer Disease in Primary Care and Secondary Care”, published in the journal JAMA, shows that the blood test correctly diagnosed Alzheimer’s in patients with memory issues about 90% of the time. BHI core faculty members Drs. Michal Schnaider Beeri and Marc Tambini shared insights on the study.
Marc Tambini, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Core Faculty Member of Rutgers Brain Health Institute
This study demonstrates the validity of peripheral biomarkers, in this case serum ratios of p-tau217/total tau and Aβ42/Aβ40, to detect AD. These measures exceed success rates of physicians’ clinical impressions or radiological tests. In some sense, when a disease is defined by pathology as AD currently is, we would expect peripheral biochemical markers of AD to be reliable indicators of central neurodegenerative processes. Clinically and for inclusion criteria in clinical trials, having these blood tests will be useful. Though this was not tested in this study, it would be more interesting scientifically to see if these biomarkers could predict onset of cognitive problems prospectively in a cognitively intact cohort.
Michal Schnaider Beeri, PhD
Director, Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center at the BHI
The Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Professor of Neurology, Robert Wood
Johnson Medical School
The results for the blood biomarkers were better than clinicians, both general practitioners and dementia experts. The results for those with subjective cognitive impairment (no objective impairment) are significantly weaker. There is evidence suggesting that for individuals with kidney and liver disease, these markers are significantly less reliable. They did not seem to account for this in the paper.
