Detect Alzheimer’s with a finger prick

An international study led by Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona has validated a procedure that makes it possible to detect early signs of Alzheimer’s through a finger prick.

The project, called Drop-Ad and published in the scientific journal Nature Medicinehas analyzed 6 different populations in different stages of Alzheimer’s and 1 cohort of people with Down syndrome, with a total of 337 participants, reports Ace Alzheimer in a statement this Wednesday.

Specifically, the work validates the quantification of proteins such as p-tau217, GFAP and NfL in dried capillary blood, with a diagnostic accuracy of 86%.

The director of the Clinical Trials Unit at Ace Alzheimer Center, Xavier Moratóhas pointed out that the method could accelerate the identification of people at risk of suffering from the disease, speeding up their referral to specialized units where complementary tests would be carried out to confirm the diagnosis.

“The objective is to democratize access to early diagnosis. “The earlier the disease is detected, the more effective any pharmacological or non-pharmacological intervention can be, and the better the patient’s care can be planned,” he noted.

A less invasive method

Until now, confirmation of amyloid pathology required lumbar puncture or molecular neuroimaging, procedures “invasive, expensive and with limited access”.

Recently, the detection of biomarkers in plasma is acquiring “a sensitivity and specificity comparable to the methods until now considered reference”, such as CSF or amyloid PET, and there are already approved tests in Europe to analyze plasma biomarkers.