Blood tests help detect Alzheimer's disease

According to a study published in the January issue of Cell issue in January, US scientists may have discovered a new way of using blood tests to look for evidence of disease. Alzheimer's.

Thomas Kodadek of the Scripps Research Institute, the director of the study, said, " If this mechanism works for Alzheimer's disease, it shows the potential that can work with many other diseases ."

In his experiment, Dr. Kodadek and his colleagues tried a new way to identify signs of disease in the blood, using molecules called peptoids to detect antibodies in the stream. Blood of animals and patients with specific diseases.

After more separation of the immunoglobulin, a major antibody molecule, in mice with similar conditions to multiple sclerosis compared to healthy mice, Dr. Kodadek switched to humans and conducted experiments at six Alzheimer 's patients , six Parkinson patients and six healthy people.

Tests were able to detect three peptoids when keeping immunoglobulin levels in Alzheimer 's patients at three times higher than in Parkinson's or healthy counterparts.

Dr. Kodadek has developed a new approach to determine the biomarkers of antibodies in humans that ignore the usual but difficult steps of identifying natural antigens or antigens that mimic, Mr. James Anderson of the National Institutes of Health said.

Alzheimer 's disease is the most common dementia. Alzheimer's is an irreversible brain degenerative disease that causes dementia in the elderly.

Damage to neurons in the cerebral cortex and surrounding structures causes dementia, reduced motor coordination, decreased sensation, perceived feelings ., ultimately memory loss and mental function.

Symptoms of the disease are complete memory loss. Distracting thoughts. Unexplained weight loss. Difficulties in walking.

Alzheimer's is the fourth most deadly disease in the elderly. There are about 4 million Americans and more than 8 million people in the world are sick.