Alzheimer's Blood Test May Coming

Researchers are getting closer to a blood test for Alzheimer's disease (AD). According to scientists at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, it may not be too far.

Right now, they're working on standardized guidelines that are necessary to establish protocols and reflect the continued efforts of an international working group.

"If we are ever going to get a blood test for Alzheimer's disease into the hands of primary care providers, we must have guidelines," said Sid O'Bryant, PhD, Interim Director of the Institute of Aging and Alzheimer's Disease Research at UNT Health Science Center, in a news release. 

The guidelines will be used to determine biomarkers of AD that will ensure every lab is following the same procedures when collecting the samples of patients that may be dealing with the neurodegenerative illness.

"You can create a blood test in the lab, but if you don't have a systematized way for collecting the blood, the test will never go into practice," he said. "You'll have one lab doing it one way and another lab doing something different."

Yet researchers reiterate that this is nothing new for blood tests and certain other illnesses. For instance, blood tests for other diseases, like diabetes, must follow strict protocols to make sure that every lab performs the test exactly the same. Such guidelines are needed before FDA approval can be sought to use the test in a clinical setting.

"For UNTHSC, our next step is to take these blood guidelines and implement them into a clinical trial," Dr. O'Bryant concluded. "That's never been done before."

More information regarding the findings were provided by the UNT Health Science Center.