CANBERRA, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Scientists in Australia have developed simpler, less invasive ways to detect Alzheimer's, potentially helping more patients access emerging treatments, Australia's national science agency said on Tuesday.
Scientists at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) found that combining two blood tests, the Lumipulse plasma pTau217 test and the Aβ42/40 ratio test, could match the accuracy of the existing "gold standard" methods, according to a CSIRO statement.
New treatments like Donanemab, recently approved by Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration for adults with early symptomatic Alzheimer's, require confirmation of amyloid plaque in the brain, it said, adding that currently, the gold standard for detecting amyloid plaque involves costly PET scans or an invasive lumbar puncture to analyze cerebrospinal fluid.
"With treatments for Alzheimer's disease biology becoming available, it's critical we have accurate, scalable and less invasive tests to identify eligible patients," said James Doecke, lead author of the study published in journal Alzheimer's and Dementia in the United States.
Blood tests are vital to the triage process to develop appropriate treatment strategies and help understand where a person is on the disease trajectory, said Doecke, also research scientist at CSIRO's Australian e-Health Research Center.
The study, which analyzed blood samples from nearly 400 participants, showed that the combined pTau217/Aβ42 ratio achieved over 93 percent accuracy, similar to the current gold-standard cerebrospinal fluid tests, and correctly identified nearly all cases among patients eligible for new Alzheimer's drugs such as Donanemab.
Using the tests combined provided clinicians with highly reliable results, reducing the number of uncertain cases by nearly half, the statement said.
The study highlights the potential for blood-based biomarkers to reduce reliance on costly and invasive PET scans and lumbar punctures, making diagnosis more accessible to patients and healthcare systems worldwide, it added. ■
