A Blood Protein Signature that Correlates with Alzheimer ' s Risk

Signatures built from the vast array of proteins found in the blood stream, including those encapsulated in extracellular vesicles, should in principle correlate with many health conditions. This includes those conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, characterized by a long, slow preclinical stage in which damage and metabolic disarray builds up over time. Modern machine learning techniques allow the cost-effective construction of such signatures, given a large enough database work with, and as illustrated here. Efforts to gauge people's Alzheimer's risk before dementia arises have focused mainly on the two most obvious features of Alzheimer's brain pathology: clumps of amyloid beta protein known as plaques, and tangles of tau protein. Scientists have shown that brain imaging of plaques, and blood or cerebrospinal fluid levels of amyloid beta or tau, have some value in predicting Alzheimer's years in advance. But humans have tens of thousands of other distinct proteins in their cells and blood, and techniques for measuring many of these from a single, small blood sample have advanced in recent years. Would a more comprehensive analysis using such techniques reveal other harbingers of Alzheimer's? An initial analysis covered blood samples taken during 2011-13 from more than 4,800 late-middle-aged participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, a large epidemiological study of heart disease-related risk factors and outcomes, recording leve...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs