New Non-Invasive Method Detects Alzheimer's Disease Early

Detecting Alzheimer's disease early is important for extending healthy years. Now, though, scientists have come up with a non-invasive method to detect the disease, which could be huge when it comes to preventative measures.

About one out of nine people over the age of 65 are affected by Alzheimer's disease. Now, researchers have used a MRI approach that can detect the disease in a living animal at its earliest stages.

The new technique uses a MRI probe that pairs a magnetic nanostructure (MNS) with an antibody that seeks out the amyloid beta brain toxins responsible for the onset of the disease. The accumulated toxins, because of the associated magnetic nanostructures, show up as dark areas in MRI scans of the brain.

"We have a new brain imaging method that can detect the toxin that leads to Alzheimer's disease," said William Klein, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Using MRI, we can see the toxins attached to neurons in the brain. We expect to use this tool to detect this disease early and to help identify drugs that can effectively eliminate the toxin and improve health."

The researchers have successfully demonstrated that the MRI probe can detect the early stages of Alzheimer's noninvasively. This could be huge in terms of potentially treating those with Alzheimer's disease in the future.

"Non-invasive imaging by MRI of amyloid beta oligomers is a giant step forward towards diagnosis of this debilitating disease in its earliest form," said Vinayak Dravid, one of the researchers. "This MRI method could be used to determine how well a new drug is working. If the drug is effective, you would expect the amyloid beta signal to go down."

The findings are published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).