Analysis of Human Blood Could Help Determine Future Neurological Conditions
Can you detect it before its too late?
Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
What’s the difference?
These two words tend to come up in many conversations about neuroscience and neurological conditions, but what do they really mean?
For hundreds of years, scientists have been trying to figure out a treatment plan for patients with Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease, and yet there has been little to no improvement on how patients with cognitive decline are treated.
Dementia: A general term for the impaired ability to remember, think, or make decisions that interferes with doing everyday activities.
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD): The progressive neurologic disorder that causes the brain to shrink (atrophy) and brain cells to die. This is the most common form of dementia.
Background
According to the World Health Organization, dementia is currently the seventh leading cause of death among the elderly worldwide.
Today, most neurological diseases can only be diagnosed after symptoms start to arise, however, this is also an indication that the disease has already progressed to an advanced stage. For this reason, most clinical trials to treat Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) have failed.
Researchers and scientists at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DNZE) and the University Medical Center Gottingen (UMG) have discovered a simple and effective method of locating a biological biomarker that could help recognize if an individual is at risk of developing a neurological condition.
Current Research
Researchers analyzed the blood of mice who possessed similar cognitive decline as patients with Mild Cognitive Impairments (MCI).
The research confirmed that 3-microRNA signatures are correlated to cognitive function in healthy humans and increased prior to age-associated memory decline and in aging mice.
It was concluded that the effects of the elevated levels of 3-microRNA signatures can be harmful.
These signatures will present themselves not only in the blood, but in the Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) along with 3 hippocampal sub-regions of the brain to indicate early signs of dementia, and or other neurological diseases.
Scientists mentioned,
“We estimate that in humans, this biomarker indicates a development that is about two to five years in the future.”
How Has This Evolved From the Past?
A previous paper published in 2013 by the DNZE discussed the ideas that RNA can be extracted from different types of readily accessible body fluids. These include saliva, plasma, urine, and CSF.
However, it was said that when extracting RNA from these fluids, it may be more difficult to analyze due to the mixture of cells.
The previous paper does not mention blood being the favorable choice when analyzing RNA. However, in the current study, it is observed that using blood to analyze an individual’s RNA may be a preferable option as it can be one of the least invasive options.
Another paper published by Kaj Blennow at the University of Gothenburg in 2017, discusses the transition from analyzing RNA found in CSF to blood.
Blennow also discusses the uncertainty around MCI patients and their likelihood of converting to AD or dementia.
The conducted study illustrated that the patients with MCI who were stable, did not possess the biomarker for AD. Similar outcomes occurred in the current study through blood samples taken from patients who had converted from MCI to AD.
The results showed that the expression of 3-microRNA signatures in those who converted from MCI to AD was elevated, however, they could not conclude that individuals with lower 3-microRNA signatures will not convert to AD at a later point in time.
What’s Next?
How can these techniques be implemented?
Implementation of these techniques into routine checkups and physicals will be crucial to detect cognitive decline at early stages. If detected, patients could undergo further testing to ensure that the proper steps are taken to begin early intervention treatment.
This will further improve the ability to effectively diagnose AD and separate its symptoms from other neurological disorders.
Not only will this method of diagnosis decrease the quantity of patients who undergo AD and its side effects, but it will continue to ameliorate the lives of the older generations in the coming years.
Here are a few resources to learn more about this breakthrough:
- A Review of Fluid Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease: Moving from CSF to Blood.
- Modeling grey matter atrophy as a function of time, aging or cognitive decline show different anatomical patterns in Alzheimer’s disease.
- A MicroRNA signature that correlates with cognition and is a target against cognitive decline.
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