Researchers seeking to identify Alzheimer's risk focus on specific blood...( NEW YORK A simple blood test to det...)

NEW YORK A simple blood test to detect whether a person might develop Alzheimer's disease is within sight and could eventually help scientists in their quest toward reversing the disease's onset in those likely to develop the debilitating neurological condition.

Building on a study that started 20 years ago with an elderly population in Northern Manhattan at risk or in various stages of developing Alzheimer's disease, the Columbia research group has yielded ground-breaking findings that could change the way the disease is treated or someday prevent it. These findings suggest that by looking at the blood doctors may be able to detect a person's predisposition to developing the dementia-inducing disease that robs a person of their memory and ability carry out tasks essential to life.

Results presented online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of Sept. 8, 2008 suggest that individuals with elevated levels of a certain peptide in the blood plasma, Amyloid Beta 42 (A42), are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and that the decline of A42 in the bloodstream may reflect the compartmentalization or "traffic jam" of A42 in the brain, which occurs in the brain's of people with Alzheimer's.

"To date, A42 levels have measured most reliably in the cerebrospinal fluid, which is more difficult to collect than blood," said Nicole Schupf, Ph.D., Dr.P.H., associate professor of clinical epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center and lead author of the paper. "Blood draws can be done with relative ease and greater frequency than spinal taps, which is typically the way cerebrospinal fluid is collected."

In this study, researchers found that plasma levels of A42 appear to increase before the onset of Alzheimer's disease and decline shortly after the onset of dementia. Researchers surmise that A42 may become trapped in the brain, which could account for the decrease in levels p
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