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Early blood test to predict dementia is step closer as biological markers identified

Scientists have found patterns of four proteins that predict onset of dementia more than a decade before formal diagnosis

Hopes for the test were raised after scientists discovered biological markers for the condition in blood samples collected from more than 50,000 healthy volunteers enrolled in the UK Biobank project. When combined with more conventional risk factors such as age, sex, education and genetic susceptibility, the protein profiles allowed researchers to predict dementia with an estimated 90% accuracy nearly 15 years before people received clinical confirmation of the disease. Ever since lecanemab, a synthetic antibody therapy created by Biogen in the US and Eisai in Japan, made headlines in 2022 for slowing Alzheimer’s, doctors and medical charities have warned that the health service is not ready to deliver such drugs.

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