A new study from Sweden has found that a simple blood test may be able to predict a person’s risk of developing dementia up to 10 years before they are diagnosed.
The research was done by scientists at Karolinska Institutet, together with SciLifeLab and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and was published in the journal Nature Medicine.
The study focused on specific substances in the blood, called biomarkers, that may give early warning signs of dementia.
These include tau217, Neurofilament Light (NfL), and Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP). These biomarkers are linked to changes in the brain that happen in Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.
While earlier studies had already suggested these biomarkers could help in diagnosing dementia, they mostly looked at people who had already started having memory problems.
This new study looked at a wider group—more than 2,100 people over the age of 60 who were living independently and had no memory issues when the study began.
The researchers followed these participants for 10 years. At the end of that time, 17% of them had developed dementia. The team found that by looking at levels of the three key biomarkers, they could predict with up to 83% accuracy who would go on to develop dementia.
“This is exciting because it shows we might be able to tell who is at risk long before symptoms appear,” said Giulia Grande, the lead author of the study. “It could give peace of mind to people who are not at high risk.”
However, the researchers also warned that high levels of these biomarkers don’t always mean a person will get dementia. So, for now, they don’t recommend using these tests as a general screening tool for everyone.
“These tests are not ready to be used on their own to tell if someone will get dementia,” said senior author Davide Vetrano. “But they could be very helpful in the future, especially when used with other health information.”
The researchers now hope to explore how these blood tests could be used in everyday healthcare, especially to help older people living in the community. More studies are needed to see if combining blood test results with other medical and lifestyle information could make predictions even more accurate.
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Source: Karolinska Institute.
