Rabat – A research team led by Moroccan neurologist Professor Allal Boutajangout and Professor Thomas Wisniewski of New York University has made progress in the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease, showing that a simple blood test could identify early signs of the disease years before major clinical symptoms appear.
Speaking to Morocco’s news agency MAP, Boutajangout, a professor of neurology and neuroscience at NYU School of Medicine and co-director of the Cognitive Neurology Center and Biomarker Platform, said the approach relies on analyzing biomarkers found in blood plasma.
The biomarkers include amyloid beta and tau proteins, as well as several other biomarkers linked to inflammation.
The researchers studied three groups of participants. These include people with no cognitive problems, people experiencing subjective cognitive decline, and patients with measurable cognitive impairment.
Subjective cognitive decline refers to cases in which a person notices problems with their memory or thinking, even though these difficulties may not yet be detected through standard clinical tests.
The study found a strong link between blood biomarkers and deposits of amyloid and tau proteins in the brain. These deposits were detected using positron emission tomography (PET) scans. The blood biomarkers were also linked to other biological indicators associated with disease progression.
According to Boutajangout, the findings allowed researchers to identify different stages of Alzheimer’s disease with a high degree of accuracy.
He said the biomarkers can detect early disease pathways eight to 10 years before the main clinical signs appear. During this period, changes and damage in the brain may already be developing but can remain difficult to detect through traditional diagnostic methods.
Boutajangout described early detection as “an important step toward preventive and precision medicine, as it could allow treatment to begin before dementia becomes clinically apparent.”
He said incorporating blood-based biomarker tests into screening programs could help identify people at higher risk at an earlier stage. It could also help doctors determine whether approved treatments may be appropriate at different stages of the disease and rule out other potentially treatable causes of cognitive problems.
Regular blood testing could also make it easier to monitor patients and track changes in their condition over time.
Beyond Alzheimer’s
The research team is also working on biomarkers for other neurological and neurodegenerative conditions.
According to Boutajangout, this work includes Parkinson’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, traumatic brain injuries, strokes, autism, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The researcher also highlighted the potential economic benefits of blood-based testing.
Current methods used to detect Alzheimer’s-related changes, including PET brain scans and cerebrospinal fluid analysis through a lumbar puncture, can be expensive, invasive, and difficult to provide on a large scale.
A blood test, by comparison, is simpler, less costly, faster to process, and easier to integrate into large screening programs.
Boutajangout said blood testing could therefore serve as an initial screening tool, with more complex and expensive tests reserved for people whose results require further confirmation.
