A recent article published in the journal eBioMedicine explores the value of the plasma biomarker pTau181 in identifying Alzheimer’s disease.

New study by Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona in 2000 patients highlights the clinical utility of the plasma biomarker pTau181 for detecting Alzheimer's disease in its early stages.

A recent article published in the journal eBioMedicine (from The Lancet group), led by Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona and with the collaboration of Hospital San Pau, explores the value of the plasma biomarker pTau181 to identify Alzheimer's disease in patients in a memory clinic.

Alzheimer, responsible for 60-80% of all cases of dementia, is the only disease among the 10 leading causes of death in the world that still has no preventive treatment or cure. Moreover, the diagnosis of most cases is made when neuronal damage is already established and irreversible. Finding a non-invasive method of detection and diagnosis in the earliest stages of the disease is one of the great challenges in clinical practice. In this context, in recent years, there has been a growing interest in plasma biomarkers, specifically the plasma biomarker pTau181.

The study, led by Dr Amanda Cano, head of the Molecular Biology and Biomarkers Programme at Ace, has analysed in more than 2000 patients how the biomarker pTau181 in the blood can help detect Alzheimer's disease in its earliest stages. The results show that this biomarker is very promising: it has a sensitivity of 94% and an accuracy of almost 80% for identifying people at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. This translates into a low false negative rate.

The use of plasma pTau181 could reduce the number of invasive and expensive lumbar punctures performed in hospitals and specialised memory clinics by 39%. Currently, lumbar punctures are used to obtain so-called ‘cerebrospinal fluid’ through a puncture close to the spinal cord in the lumbar region of the back, which can detect certain Alzheimer's-related proteins and confirm the diagnosis. However, although currently still in the research phase, the development of biomarkers in the blood, such as pTau181, will offer a less invasive and more accessible alternative for all hospitals and primary care centres. In addition, this biomarker also helps to predict which patients might progress to dementia such as Alzheimer's, allowing for more effective monitoring.

This study is the largest ever conducted in real-world patients in a memory clinic and provides a solid scientific basis for considering pTau181 as a valuable tool in clinical practice. It is important to highlight the participation of Ace's research team, which has been leading numerous projects within the field of molecular biology in recent years, contributing to the publication of multiple articles such as "Macular vessel density in the superficial plexus is not a proxy of cerebrovascular damage in non-detected individuals: data from the NORFACE cohort"; “Genome-wide association study and polygenic risk scores of retinal thickness across the cognitive continuum: data from the NORFACE cohort”; or “Unveiling the sound of the cognitive status: Machine Learning-based speech analysis in the Alzheimer's disease spectrum”; among others. This continuous effort has been fundamental to make studies like this one, published in high impact journals and innovative research in biomedicine such as eBioMedicine, possible, thus providing new tools for clinical practice.

According to Dr Cano, "plasma biomarkers will revolutionise not only the way in which Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed, but also the selection of patients for clinical trials, the evaluation of the effectiveness of new treatments and, in short, the implementation of the strategy of precision medicine in these patients".

You can watch Amanda Cano's video where she explains the study in more depth in this link.

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