Biochemical Test Identifies Markers for Alzheimer's Disease

The test is able to measure clumped protein fragments, called aggregated beta amyloid, in cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) which are thought to be indicative of AD and will make it easier to diagnose the disease accurately.

The aggregated beta amyloid assay, the A⁴, is a highly sensitive and quantitative test that detects the protein before the plaques form in the brain. In mouse models, the assay detects the aggregates months before the brain plaques are seen by immunohistochemistry. Preliminary results suggest that the biochemical test can detect the presence of the aggregated beta amyloid in the cerebral spinal fluid, which is collected when investigating patients for AD. The next step is to optimize the test for commercialization by comparing hundreds of spinal fluid samples from patients with the disease to those from age-matched individuals without the disease.

The first application of the A⁴ aggregated beta amyloid assay, (Amorfix Life Sciences Ltd., Mississauga, ON, Canada), will be in clinical trials where it could be used to screen participating patients more effectively. The current methodology to test for Alzheimer's includes cognitive testing of memory and can have as much as a 30% - 35% false positive result. Alzheimer's disease currently affects more than five million people across North America and that number is expected to grow as the population of baby boomers ages.

Robert Gundel, PhD, president and CEO of Amorfix, said, "Our hope is to one day be able to use this test on patients showing early signs of dementia in order to predict which patients may progress rapidly into the disease and which may not. An accurate diagnostic test like the one we are developing can dramatically facilitate research and development efforts and hopefully get new treatments out on the market sooner at a lower cost." The company is also working on a project to take the same biochemical test and adapt it to measure the same substance in a patient's blood.

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