Lipidomics at AACC: Blood test for Alzheimer’s disease

A simple blood test is being presented as a viable means of predicting a patient’s odds of developing neurodegenerative disease within two to three years. Preliminary research came out in March and will be elaborated in a late-breaking session July 28 at the 2014 annual meeting of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC).

The Georgetown University study led by Howard Federoff, MD, PhD, executive dean at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and colleagues, showed how cognitively normal subjects aged 70 and older were assessed, with 90 percent accuracy, whether they would experience cognitive impairment strictly by a 10-lipid blood test. The researchers are asserting that the test is easier than cerebrospinal fluid tests and current brain imaging for dementia.

"This discovery is a potentially enormous breakthrough in the fight against Alzheimer's," AACC CEO Janet B. Kreizman said. "If research aimed at a cure for Alzheimer's is to move forward, it is crucial that Alzheimer's clinical trials find a way to recruit patients who are still asymptomatic, since they are the ones most likely to respond to treatment. The Federoff team's test could be the answer to this problem, and it also demonstrates how laboratory medicine helps patients achieve better health—by not only ensuring that patients receive timely and appropriate treatment, but also by enabling researchers to develop effective treatments in the first place."  

“Lipidomics: A Powerful Approach to Identify Pre-clinical Memory Impairment in Older Adults” will be presented at 10:30 a.m. Monday, July 28, at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, by Amrita Cheema, PhD, co-investigator of the study and an associate professor and co-director of the Proteomics and Metabolomics Shared Resource at Georgetown.