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# Biomarkers May Be Used to Diagnose and Monitor Alzheimer’s More Effectively
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/alzheimer_s_disease_1205110629/
- Published: 2011-12-05T19:28:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:22:57.000Z
- Description: Kaj Blennow of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy is developing new methods for diagnosing Alzheimer's and monitoring treatment, arguing that drugs aimed at clearing beta amyloid plaques have failed in major trials and that current mouse models link only tenuously to the common human form.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Drug, Health News, Alzheimer's, #vivvo-import

By Maria and editing by Stacey Sexton

Several potential drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's have worked well on mice, but making the drugs effective for humans has proved more challenging, according to Science Daily.

A leading researcher from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden is now launching brand new methods for diagnosing Alzheimer's and monitoring treatment.

Research advances in recent years gave us detailed knowledge of what were believed to be molecular mechanisms behind the disease. The spotlight fell on beta amyloid, a peptide formed from a special protein in the brain.

The prevailing hypothesis was that protein clumps together into plaques, which damage the brain's nerve cells and cause the characteristic symptoms of Alzheimer's. This theory spawned a large number of potential drugs which attempt to delay the development of the disease by slowing down or clearing the formation of plaques. However, several major clinical trials have shown that this type of medication is not at all effective. At this time, no drugs can cure the disease.

Kaj Blennow, professor at the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy and one of the world's leading dementia researchers, is now taking research into Alzheimer's medication in an innovative direction. "It's important that we constantly question research results, including in Alzheimer's research," says Blennow. "And to do this we have to come up with new analytical methods."

Blennow and his research colleagues believe that the solution lies in being able to test different drugs directly on living patients, instead of on mice as has been the testing method to date. "The mouse models currently being used have a very tenuous link to the most common form of Alzheimer's," says Blennow. "This is particularly obvious when new drug candidates are tested on real people. We have now identified over 100 molecules that reduce the formation of plaques in mice with Alzheimer's, but unfortunately, none have led to a single drug that slows down the illness in humans."

Blennow and his research colleagues at the Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory are trying instead to come up with new analytical methods that use biomarkers to monitor biochemical changes in patients with Alzheimer's. It is hoped that the biomarkers can be used both to make an accurate and early diagnosis and to establish and monitor the effects of new drugs.

"Our studies on patients with Alzheimer's and other age-related disorders would suggest that beta-amyloid is perhaps not the direct cause of the illness, but instead the brain's response to different types of stress," says Blennow. "This could completely change the way we view the illness and could play a crucial role in future treatments."

Alzheimer's is one of the most common diseases we face today, and more than 100,000 people are affected by it in Sweden alone. The disease is caused by changes in the brain's nerve cells. It affects memory and often leads to an early death.