If a large new trial delivers as hoped, a simple finger-prick could one day help flag Alzheimer's risk long before symptoms appear. As the BBC reports, researchers in the UK, US, and Canada will study 1,000 people over age 60 to test whether a small blood sample from the fingertip can reliably detect proteins tied to Alzheimer's disease. The Bio-Hermes-002 study, led by medical research charity LifeArc and the Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation, is looking for three blood-based biomarkers linked to the condition, including abnormal forms of amyloid and tau that can build up in the brain more than a decade before memory issues begin.
"If this is successful, it provides a ubiquitous, accurate test which can detect the presence of abnormal amyloid protein in the brain without complicated, expensive investigations," says Emer MacSweeney, a neuro-radiologist at ReCognition Health who is involved with the study. All participants will undergo today's "gold-standard" diagnostic tests: either a PET scan that tracks amyloid in the brain using a radioactive tracer or a lumbar puncture to collect spinal fluid. Those procedures are costly, invasive, and rare—only an estimated 2% of Alzheimer's patients receive them—and scientists will compare their results with the finger-prick test to gauge its accuracy.
The trial, scheduled to be finished in 2028, will include people with normal cognition, mild impairment, and early Alzheimer's, per Alzheimer's Research UK. If successful, the finger-prick test could eventually be done at home, with samples mailed to a lab without refrigeration. The hope is that could mesh with new drugs designed to help after an early diagnosis.
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