WIKIMEDIA, CALLE EKLUND/V-WOLFA panel of 10 metabolites from peripheral blood could be used to predict future cognitive impairment in asymptomatic older adults, according to a study published today (March 9) in Nature Medicine. Georgetown University Medical Center’s Howard Federoff and his colleagues found that these biomarkers indicate whether an elderly person who showed no signs of cognitive problems would go on to develop either mild memory impairment or Alzheimer’s disease within two to three years, with greater than 90 percent accuracy. Their work adds to a growing body of literature implicating aberrant lipid metabolism in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease.
“This is the first time that blood-based lipidomics has been used to describe an at-risk population in a neurodegenerative disease area,” Federoff told The Scientist.
This study “highlights the enormous potential of lipid biomarkers and their ability to predict memory impairment at a preclinical stage of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Columbia University’s Gilbert Di Paolo, an associate professor of pathology and cell biology, who was not involved in the work. That these biomarkers can be detected in the blood is particularly promising, he added. “The scientific community working on Alzheimer’s disease has explored this body fluid from many different angles to try and find biomarkers predicting the onset of this disorder, unfortunately without much success.”
The team followed 525 healthy participants, aged 70 and older, for ...
