- New research shows a connection between glycans (sugar molecules in the blood) and tau (proteins that play a role in the development of dementia).
- The data could open the door to low-cost, non-invasive diagnoses that could predict Alzheimer’s disease up to a decade in advance.
- With dementia and Alzheimer’s diagnoses on the rise, there’s increased need for better diagnostic and treatment options.
- The researchers’ goal is to provide doctors with a better way to predict Alzheimer’s before onset.
Researchers are reporting a connection between sugar molecules in the bloodstream and Alzheimer’s disease — a discovery they say could lead to an inexpensive, effective screening procedure that could diagnose the disease years before onset.
The researchers from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden,
Robin Zhou, the study’s first author and a medical student and affiliated researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at Karolinska Insitute, told Medical News Today that the data builds on
“Just as in cerebrospinal fluid, we discovered a correlation between levels of this glycan epitope and levels of the pathogenic tau protein, linking this glycan to Alzheimer’s pathogenesis,” he explained. “However, we were surprised to find that when analyzing the glycan to tau ratio in individuals, it seemed to be able to predict Alzheimer’s disease up to a decade before diagnosis.”
Given the fact that there’s a need for low-cost, non-invasive screening screening methods for Alzheimer’s, the researchers say the findings couldn’t have come at a better time.
Zhou said that he and his colleagues have the ultimate goal of providing doctors…
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