A Newly Approved Blood Test for Diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease

By Thomas Lehrich, President of the Board of Directors

Caring for a family member with a brain condition that has no known effective treatment and a challenging prognosis is extremely difficult. The family and medical dynamics involved can be overwhelming.

In this article, we discuss the first Food and Drug Administration–approved blood test for diagnosing Alzheimer’s, the most common type of dementia in the United States.

A year ago, the Plus One Foundation introduced our branded education program, Think aBout It. Last month, we covered biomarkers, launching an educational piece focused on brain injury signature markers. We also know that individuals with brain injuries have an increased risk of developing future cognitive conditions.

Biomarkers that can identify brain illness are vital to earlier diagnosis and treatment. Doctors and family members are often unsure how to approach seeking a diagnosis for an untreatable brain disease. As discussed earlier, there is often hesitation when it comes to addressing symptoms and pursuing a diagnosis.Even more than a century after it was discovered, much about Alzheimer’s disease remains unknown.

However, progress in research—including how certain protein signatures help diagnose different causes of cognitive decline—has made it easier and faster for doctors to detect the disease and offers better potential for treatment.

The recently approved test, called Lumipulse, can help screen for early-stage Alzheimer’s and offers a simpler way to monitor clinical trials. Plus One predicts that this blood test will become part of future patient screenings.

The test measures two proteins found in blood plasma—p-tau217 and amyloid beta 42—and calculates their ratio. This ratio correlates with the presence of amyloid plaques in the brain, which is a known Alzheimer’s biomarker. With early diagnosis comes a better understanding of a disease that has historically shown little promise for treatment. Biomarkers of the disease will help drive advances in medicine that improve both treatment and, eventually, the search for a cure.

Think aBout It
Education is at the heart of what we do; our Think aBout It campaign aims to dig deeper into all aspects of TBIs and neurological conditions. Look for upcoming segments by our educational team.