Researchers discover new biomarker of Alzheimer’s disease detectable in blood

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute (KI) in Sweden have identified a sugar molecule as a potential new biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease that can be detected in the blood of individuals up to ten years before diagnosis.

According to Alzheimer Associationnearly seven million Americans have the disease, and that number is expected to nearly double by 2050. Because early detection of Alzheimer’s disease is crucial to preventing irreversible damage to neurons, the hunt for biomarkers that could be used to predict disease before it’s too late is at an all time high.

Report in Alzheimer’s and dementia, KI scientists have now shown that blood levels of a certain glycan, called bisected N-acetylglucosamine, can be used to predict an individual’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in the future. Glycans are sugar molecules found on the surface of proteins that allow scientists to locate them.

“The role of glycans, structures made of sugar molecules, is a relatively unexplored area in dementia research,” said Robin Zhou, medical student and researcher affiliated with the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS ), KI and first author. of the study.

“We demonstrate in our study that blood glycan levels are altered early in the development of the disease. This could mean that we will be able to predict the risk of Alzheimer’s disease with just a blood test and a memory test.

The researchers determined that high sugar levels were correlated with an increase in tau protein, a well-known biomarker of the disease. People with matching levels of glycans and tau were more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s-like dementia as those without.

“We also show that a simple statistical model that takes into account blood levels of glycan and tau, the risk gene APOE4 and a memory test, can be used to predict Alzheimer’s disease with 80% reliability. nearly a decade before symptoms such as memory loss appear,” said corresponding author Sophia Schedin Weiss, docent at NVS, KI in a press release.

The study was conducted based on the results of more than 200 participants from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen (SNACK). Individuals were tracked at regular intervals for a total of 17 years. The factors checked during the follow-ups involved memory loss as well as the presence of dementia.

To better understand the role of the biomarker in Alzheimer’s pathology, researchers want to analyze blood samples from participants in more studies of aging around the world.

“We are collaborating with primary care researchers in Sweden to assess different biomarkers of dementia in primary health care centres. We hope that blood glycans will prove to be a valuable addition to current Alzheimer’s disease screening methods that will help detect the disease early,” Weiss concluded.