Groundbreaking pTau217 Blood Test as Accurate as Brain Imaging or CSF Testing in Diagnosing Alzheimer's
|
By LabMedica International staff writers Posted on 21 Mar 2024 |
|
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition that causes the brain to deteriorate over time, marked by the buildup of certain harmful proteins that eventually lead to a decline in brain function and cell death. These changes can happen long before any symptoms show up. Scientists have found certain proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid that are good indicators of AD. One of the most promising markers for early and more precise detection of AD in the blood is phosphorylated tau at position 217 (pTau217). It's seen as a game-changer for diagnosing AD sooner, categorizing patients for research studies, and improving how patients are cared for and treated. Now, an innovative and novel blood test can be used in the screening, diagnosis, and monitoring of AD based on the circulating level of this promising biomarker pTau217.
ALZpath Dx (Carlsbad, CA, USA) has developed a robust and scalable plasma-based ultra-sensitive assay, branded ALZpathDx, utilizing a proprietary monoclonal pTau217 antibody and peptide calibrator. This blood-based ELISA assay has been developed on the semi-automated single-molecule array (Simoa) platform. ALZpathDx measures pTau217 in blood, which can signal amyloid and tau accumulation in the brain years prior to the onset of cognitive symptoms. ALZpathDx also correlates strongly with prior diagnostic methods, including positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, the current gold standard diagnostic technique. Additionally, this blood-based test is as accurate as brain imaging or CSF testing but is faster, more accessible, less expensive, and less invasive, and it does not require radiation exposure.
An international peer-reviewed study evaluating the performance of its ALZpath Dx assay in a 786-patient study found that the ultra-sensitive immunoassay showed high diagnostic accuracy in identifying elevated amyloid in the brain across all cohorts. The accuracy was significantly higher than other blood-based biomarker combinations and equivalent to cerebrospinal fluid (spinal tap) biomarkers. It demonstrated high accuracy in predicting AD brain pathologies (amyloid-beta plaques and tau tangles) as identified by PET imaging. The validation study used over 1,700 samples with amyloid PET imaging and 150 subjects with post-mortem (autopsy) pathology, demonstrating an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.94, significantly exceeding the 90% accuracy threshold for a standalone diagnostic AD test proposed by the Alzheimer's Association Workgroup.
.jpg)
Latest Molecular Diagnostics News
- Simple Blood Test Improves Heart Attack and Stroke Risk Prediction
- Blood Biomarker Test Could Detect Genetic Predisposition to Alzheimer’s
- Novel Autoantibody Against DAGLA Discovered in Cerebellitis
- Blood Test Could Identify Patients at Risk for Severe Scleroderma
- Gene-Based Blood Test Accurately Predicts Tumor Recurrence of Advanced Skin Cancer
- Rapid Blood Test Identifies Pre-Symptomatic Patients with Parkinson’s Disease
- Blood Test for Early Alzheimer's Detection Achieves Over 90% Accuracy
- RNA-Based Blood Test Detects Preeclampsia Risk Months Before Symptoms
- First Of Its Kind Test Uses microRNAs to Predict Toxicity from Cancer Therapy
- Novel Cell-Based Assay Provides Sensitive and Specific Autoantibody Detection in Demyelination
- Novel Point-of-Care Technology Delivers Accurate HIV Results in Minutes
- Blood Test Rules Out Future Dementia Risk
- D-Dimer Testing Can Identify Patients at Higher Risk of Pulmonary Embolism
- New Biomarkers to Improve Early Detection and Monitoring of Kidney Injury
- Chemiluminescence Immunoassays Support Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease
- Blood Test Identifies Multiple Biomarkers for Rapid Diagnosis of Spinal Cord Injury
Channels
Clinical Chemistry
view channel
‘Brilliantly Luminous’ Nanoscale Chemical Tool to Improve Disease Detection
Thousands of commercially available glowing molecules known as fluorophores are commonly used in medical imaging, disease detection, biomarker tagging, and chemical analysis. They are also integral in... Read more
Low-Cost Portable Screening Test to Transform Kidney Disease Detection
Millions of individuals suffer from kidney disease, which often remains undiagnosed until it has reached a critical stage. This silent epidemic not only diminishes the quality of life for those affected... Read more
New Method Uses Pulsed Infrared Light to Find Cancer's 'Fingerprints' In Blood Plasma
Cancer diagnoses have traditionally relied on invasive or time-consuming procedures like tissue biopsies. Now, new research published in ACS Central Science introduces a method that utilizes pulsed infrared... Read more
Hematology
view channel
New Scoring System Predicts Risk of Developing Cancer from Common Blood Disorder
Clonal cytopenia of undetermined significance (CCUS) is a blood disorder commonly found in older adults, characterized by mutations in blood cells and a low blood count, but without any obvious cause or... Read more
Non-Invasive Prenatal Test for Fetal RhD Status Demonstrates 100% Accuracy
In the United States, approximately 15% of pregnant individuals are RhD-negative. However, in about 40% of these cases, the fetus is also RhD-negative, making the administration of RhoGAM unnecessary.... Read more
Immunology
view channel
Stem Cell Test Predicts Treatment Outcome for Patients with Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer
Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently responds to chemotherapy initially, but eventually, the tumor develops resistance to the therapy, leading to regrowth. This resistance is partially due to the activation... Read more
Machine Learning-Enabled Blood Test Predicts Immunotherapy Response in Lymphoma Patients
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has emerged as one of the most promising recent developments in the treatment of blood cancers. However, over half of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients... Read more
Microbiology
view channel
Handheld Device Delivers Low-Cost TB Results in Less Than One Hour
Tuberculosis (TB) remains the deadliest infectious disease globally, affecting an estimated 10 million people annually. In 2021, about 4.2 million TB cases went undiagnosed or unreported, mainly due to... Read more
New AI-Based Method Improves Diagnosis of Drug-Resistant Infections
Drug-resistant infections, particularly those caused by deadly bacteria like tuberculosis and staphylococcus, are rapidly emerging as a global health emergency. These infections are more difficult to treat,... Read more
Breakthrough Diagnostic Technology Identifies Bacterial Infections with Almost 100% Accuracy within Three Hours
Rapid and precise identification of pathogenic microbes in patient samples is essential for the effective treatment of acute infectious diseases, such as sepsis. The fluorescence in situ hybridization... Read more
Pathology
view channel
Spit Test More Accurate at Identifying Future Prostate Cancer Risk
Currently, blood tests that measure the level of a protein called prostate-specific antigen (PSA) are commonly used to identify men at higher risk for prostate cancer. This test is typically used based... Read more
DNA Nanotechnology Boosts Sensitivity of Test Strips
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, most people have become familiar with paper-based rapid test strips, also known as lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs). These tests are used to quickly detect biomarkers that... Read more
Novel UV and Machine Learning-Aided Method Detects Microbial Contamination in Cell Cultures
Cell therapy holds great potential in treating diseases such as cancers, inflammatory conditions, and chronic degenerative disorders by manipulating or replacing cells to restore function or combat disease.... Read more
Technology
view channel
Disposable Microchip Technology Could Selectively Detect HIV in Whole Blood Samples
As of the end of 2023, approximately 40 million people globally were living with HIV, and around 630,000 individuals died from AIDS-related illnesses that same year. Despite a substantial decline in deaths... Read more
Pain-On-A-Chip Microfluidic Device Determines Types of Chronic Pain from Blood Samples
Chronic pain is a widespread condition that remains difficult to manage, and existing clinical methods for its treatment rely largely on self-reporting, which can be subjective and especially problematic... Read more
Innovative, Label-Free Ratiometric Fluorosensor Enables More Sensitive Viral RNA Detection
Viruses present a major global health risk, as demonstrated by recent pandemics, making early detection and identification essential for preventing new outbreaks. While traditional detection methods are... Read more
Industry
view channel
Cepheid and Oxford Nanopore Technologies Partner on Advancing Automated Sequencing-Based Solutions
Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), a leading molecular diagnostics company, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford, UK), the company behind a new generation of sequencing-based molecular analysis technologies,... Read more
Grifols and Tecan’s IBL Collaborate on Advanced Biomarker Panels
Grifols (Barcelona, Spain), one of the world’s leading producers of plasma-derived medicines and innovative diagnostic solutions, is expanding its offer in clinical diagnostics through a strategic partnership... Read more
