Abnormal tau proteins can form tangled fibres that accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer's (slice at left). (Brain without Alzheimer's shown at right.)Credit: Alfred Pasieka/Science Photo Library The test, published in Nature Medicine on 19 February1, is based on an abnormal form of a protein called tau that circulates in the blood, and begins to accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer's well before symptoms such as memory loss appear. If validated in larger studies, the test could provide a way to intervene in the neurodegenerative disease at an earlier stage, when treatment is more likely to be effective. It could also provide a measurable biological marker, or 'biomarker', to make clinical trials of potential Alzheimer's disease treatments easier and cheaper. 'Predicting if and when patients are likely to develop Alzheimer's symptoms could be useful in designing trials of interventions to prevent or delay symptom onset,' says Howard Fink, a physician at the...
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