Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – A finger-prick blood test, combined with online brain tests, all to be done directly at home.
This could one day be the strategy to effectively identify the risk of developing dementia. This is the suggestion of a study conducted by the University of Exeter and published in Nature Communications. The authors found that levels of dementia-related proteins, measured via a home blood test, are indeed correlated with performance on a series of cognitive tests.
Based on the findings, the research – funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Exeter Biomedical Research Centre – concludes that home testing could be a way to identify people at highest risk of developing the condition, who could then be prioritised for further testing, treatment and support.
The strategy could also help identify people at low risk, as well as those at moderate risk (who could benefit from monitoring and guidance on how to reduce their risk in the future).
“Our previous research has shown that a capillary blood sample can be taken at home and sent to a laboratory, and that we can identify biomarkers in the blood linked to dementia,” explains Anne Corbett of the University of Exeter Medical School, who led the research. “This new study builds on those findings to demonstrate that we can link these biomarkers to performance on cognitive tests, offering us a potential method for predicting dementia risk.
This work paves the way for screening people without the need for clinic visits or complex assessments. This would ensure that those at highest risk can be prioritized for monitoring and diagnosis, ensuring the best support and treatment for those who need it most.
The research was conducted as part of the online Protect study, in which over 30 UK participants over the age of 40 regularly take cognitive tests to measure memory, attention, and executive function, or decision-making ability. The research involved 174 Protect participants, who were sent home tests, which they then completed themselves and returned to the team. The researchers measured two proteins: PTAU 217, associated with Alzheimer's disease, and GFAP, linked to broader cognitive decline. They found that performance on the brain tests correlated with the presence of these proteins, with tau showing the strongest correlation. This allowed the team to classify participants according to their risk: low, medium, and high.
"It is estimated that nearly one million people in the UK have dementia, yet currently only one in a thousand people with early signs of cognitive decline receives a specialist assessment," highlights Clive Ballard of the University of Exeter Medical School. "Our approach, which combines rigorous cognitive testing with protein measurement via a home blood test, could provide a simple, efficient, and cost-effective way to reach a large number of people in the community who would otherwise not be prioritized for subsequent stages of diagnosis or support, and to optimize the clinical pathway to allow early identification of those at highest risk." Now "we need further research to validate this approach," the expert emphasizes. But "the potential of this combination of cognitive testing and home blood testing," adds Marian Knight, scientific director for NIHR infrastructure, "is exciting. It could reduce the burden on the National Health Service (NHS) by allowing people to be screened in their own homes rather than in hospital or clinics. It could also allow us to identify people with dementia earlier, personalize treatments more effectively, and improve patient outcomes."
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