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# Blood test may diagnose Alzheimer's in its early stage
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/blood_test_may_diagnose_alzheimer_s_0108110810/
- Published: 2011-01-08T09:09:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T15:45:59.000Z
- Description: Scripps researchers compared six Alzheimer's patients with six healthy people and six with Parkinson's, and found synthetic molecules that captured three-fold higher IgG antibody levels only in the Alzheimer's group. The work needs repeating in larger and earlier-stage groups.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Nutrition, Alzheimer's, #vivvo-import

A blood test for biomarkers, specifically antibodies produced by the immune system, may potentially be used in the future to diagnose Alzheimer's disease in its early stage, a study in the Jan7 issue of Cell suggests.

Alzheimer's disease affects an estimated 5 million Americans, according to the U.S. government, and there is no cure for the disease. Even if the disease can be detected in its early stage, nothing can be done about it at this time.

Thomas Kodadek at The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, was cited as saying, however, that early diagnosis may help find a good therapy for Alzheimer's disease.

Kodadek et al. compared six Alzheimer's patients with six healthy people and six Parkinson's disease patients and found three-fold more immunoglobin (IgG) antibodies in all six of the Alzheimer's patients, compared with other healthy or Parkinson's disease patients.

For the blood test study, the researchers used thousands of synthetic molecules to screen antibodies and found two of them were able to capture high concentrations of IgG antibodies only in Alzheimer's patients.

The blood test method, which was not based on the requirement of knowing the antigens that trigger the immune responses, could be potentially used to screen for biomarkers associated with other diseases as well, according to the researchers.

The research needs to be repeated in larger numbers of patients to confirm the results. Also, the six patients were known to have Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, it is unknown whether the method can detect the biomarkers in people with the disease in its early stage.

Alzheimer's disease, named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, is a brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking capability. Patients eventually will lose their ability to carry out the simplest tasks in their daily lives. The disease is often found in people at age 60 or older.

Dr. Alzheimer was the first to notice the changes in the brain tissue of a woman who died of a mental illness.

The disease is irreversible and progressive. It takes one or two decades for the disease to develop into a stage that results in clinical symptoms.

Alzheimer's disease affects as many as 5.1 million American men and women, according to the U.S. National Institute of Health National Institute on Aging.

Alzheimer's disease in its early stage may cause amnesic mild cognitive impairment. Patients with mild Alzheimer's disease experience more memory loss and changes in other cognitive abilities such as getting lost, trouble handling money and paying bills, repeating questions, taking longer to complete normal tasks, poor judgment, and small mood and personality changes. The disease is often diagnosed in this stage.

Patients with moderate Alzheimer's disease have a hard time recognizing family and friends, are unable to learn new things, carry out simple tasks like getting dressed.

In its severe stage, the disease completely disables a person's mental and physical ability.

David Liu and editing by Denise Reynolds