A RESEARCH group at Trinity College Dublin has developed an important new test that can help provide early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. This is the second such test announced by the group within the past five months.
Prof Harald Hampel and colleagues in Trinity's Institute of Neuroscience and at Tallaght hospital in Dublin conducted the research with a team in the US and recently published their findings in the neurology journal Brain and in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
They discovered an enzyme present in the cerebrospinal fluid that warns of the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
The enzyme, BACE1, is essential for the formation of the amyloid plaques that accumulate in the brain tissues of patients with Alzheimer's. If the plaques are present, then BACE1 will be found in the fluid at varying levels.
"It means that the assessment of BACE1 could be of high clinical value for the early detection and risk assessment of Alzheimer's disease in elderly persons," Prof Hampel said.
His research team only last December published details of another diagnostic marker called p-tau 231. This biological marker was found to be an important predictor of the cognitive decline seen in Alzheimer's.
Its presence in cerebrospinal fluid is associated with the neurofibrillary "tangles", which with plaques are the two definitive physiological indicators of the disease.
The two tests should give information about whether a person presenting with mild cognitive impairment is otherwise healthy or likely to be in the early stages of Alzheimer's, explained Dr Michael Ewers, a senior research fellow in Prof Hampel's team.
A new clinical study is now under way to see whether BACE1 levels can predict the onset of Alzheimer's two to three years in advance.
Being able to provide this early diagnosis was vital, stated Maurice O'Connell, chief executive officer of the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland. "At the moment diagnosis is just not happening early enough." Five years can pass before confirmation of the disease. "From our perspective the individual having access to early diagnosis is extremely important."
The person can organise financial and legal matters before cognitive abilities decline, but they also gain access to new services that add quality of life to those with the disease, he said. "It is early days yet but it does offer hope for people. And it is gratifying to see high-calibre research on Alzheimer's being conducted in Ireland."