Executive Health 
 
 Early Steps Toward an Alzheimer's Blood Test 
 
 Different immune system proteins exist in the blood of people with the disease, study finds 
 
 THURSDAY, Jan. 6 (HealthDay News) -- A blood test that screens for antibodies, a protein produced by the immune system, may one day be used to detect Alzheimer's and other diseases, new research suggests. 
 
 Though the research is still in its infancy, being able to detect Alzheimer's via antibodies would be a simpler and less invasive method of diagnosing the disease, researchers said. 
 
 But the study's lead author stressed that the true benefits of such a test for Alzheimer's patients won't really arise until scientists develop effective treatments against the disease. 
 
 "It's unclear whether people would want to know a couple of years ahead of time they are going to get Alzheimer's if they can't do anything about it," said Thomas Kodadek, a professor of chemistry and cancer biology at The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla. "But I can say with some certainty that we will never get a good therapy for Alzheimer's without early diagnosis." 
 
 The study, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is published in the Jan. 7 issue of Cell. 
 
 Typically, in developing blood tests for diseases, researchers have searched for antigens -- that is, proteins from a virus, bacteria or other disease process such as cancer or neurological conditions like Alzheimer's -- that set off an immune response. 
 
 Only after identifying the antigen would researchers then search for antibodies to that antigen, or signs that the immune system had picked up on the problem and mounted a response. 
 
 But antigens can be difficult to find, Kodadek explained. 
 
 "In Alzheimer's, or in a disease such as cancer, it's not at all obvious what the initiating event is," he said. "We just don't know what are those first weirdly modified proteins that are unique to the disease process that the immune system 'sees.'" 
 
 The new research went about things differently. Rather than search for the elusive antigen, researchers did "high throughput" screening using thousands of synthetic molecules, called peptoids, that would bind with the antibodies. 
 
 Comparing blood samples from six Alzheimer's patients, six healthy people and six Parkinson's disease patients, the researchers found that two of the thousands of synthetic molecules "captured" at least three-fold more immunoglobulin (IgG) antibodies from all six of the Alzheimer's patients than from either the healthy controls or the Parkinson's patients. 
 
 The synthetic molecules, in effect, acted as a lure for the antibodies -- enabling the researchers to spot biomarkers in the blood unique to those with Alzheimer's. 
 
 This process could be repeated to test for antibodies associated with other diseases as well, Kodadek theorized. 
 
 "The big advance from what people have been doing before is that this method completely removes the requirement of knowing the native antigens that triggered the immune response," Kodadek said. "The real excitement is it should allow us to identify biomarkers for any disease for which the immune system reacts." 
 
 The synthetic molecules are easily modifiable and can be produced quickly in large quantities at lower cost, Kodadek said. 
 
 However, while promising, the results are preliminary and need to be replicated in larger numbers of patients, noted Dr. Jeremy Koppel, an Alzheimer's research scientist at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y. He was not involved in the new research. 
 
 "This study represents a novel approach to the development of a noninvasive screening instrument for conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, which currently lack definitive diagnostic biomarkers," Koppel said. "Beyond diagnostics, the future identification of the biomarkers detected in this study has the potential to deepen our understanding of the disease process itself." 
 
 Another caveat is that the study was done in people who already had Alzheimer's, not those merely at risk for the disease. Further research needs to be done to determine how soon into the progression of the disease the abnormal antibodies can be detected. 
 
 Right now, there are a few medications that can help with the symptoms of Alzheimer's, but there are no treatments that slow the progression of the disease. 
 
 So for many patients, early diagnosis may not necessarily be something they want, Kodadek said. But from a research perspective, early diagnosis is a key to developing better treatment, he added. 
 
 With neurodegenerative diseases, the hope is that drugs could block further decline, making it crucial to know if a person has the disease before they begin having significant symptoms, he said. 
 
 More information 
 
 The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more on Alzheimer's. 
 
 SOURCES: Thomas Kodadek, Ph.D., professor, chemistry and cancer biology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, Fla; Jeremy Koppel, M.D., Alzheimer's research scientist, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, N.Y.; Jan. 7, 2011, Cell 
 
 Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved. ||||| * Technology spotted antibodies for disease in blood 
 
 * Findings need to be confirmed 
 
 By Julie Steenhuysen 
 
 CHICAGO, Jan 6 (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have developed a way to harness the immune system to test for Alzheimer's, an approach they say could lead to a blood test for the disease within months. 
 
 A study of the technology showed it accurately spotted Alzheimer's in blood samples from six people with the disease, Thomas Kodadek of the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, wrote on Thursday in the journal Cell. 
 
 The approach may work in other diseases, like cancer, Kodadek said in a telephone interview. 
 
 The test looks for antibodies, or immune-system proteins, that help the body attack foreign invaders. 
 
 Antibodies fight off infections but Kodadek said researchers are beginning to think that most diseases cause changes in cells that make the body see the cells as foreign invaders. 
 
 He believes the body may produce antibodies in response to a range of diseases and would like to develop blood tests that look for them. 
 
 His team used laboratory-made molecules called peptoids as antigen surrogates to screen for antibodies specific to Alzheimer's disease. 
 
 Three of them reacted strongly to the blood of the six patients with Alzheimer's disease, but not with blood from healthy people. 
 
 Kodadek said he has since tested more samples, including samples from people with mild cognitive impairment, an early sign of Alzheimer's, and the test is holding up. 
 
 Kodadek has licensed the technology to Miami-based OPKO Health Inc (OPK.A), which will develop diagnostic kits, which he thinks could be available in six to seven months. 
 
 "The immediate utility of that is to help pharmaceutical companies stratify patients for clinical trials," he said. 
 
 The team has tried to determine whether the test can distinguish among different neurodegenerative diseases, like lupus and Parkinson's. "We've even looked at a couple of other forms of dementia. These really do appear to be quite specific to Alzheimer's," Kodadek said. 
 
 They also used the test on blood from 200 elderly people not suffering from dementia and found 8 percent had elevated concentrations of the same antibodies found in Alzheimer's patients, which suggests the test may work as an early predictor of disease.
– Researchers say they've found another possible way to detect Alzheimer's, this time through a blood test that looks for antibodies. Though still under development, a diagnostic kit could be available within the year, reports Reuters. The catch: While scientists are getting better at detecting Alzheimer's with such discoveries, they still can't cure the disease. "It's unclear whether people would want to know a couple of years ahead of time they are going to get Alzheimer's if they can't do anything about it," says a scientist with the Scripps Research Institute. "But I can say with some certainty that we will never get a good therapy for Alzheimer's without early diagnosis." More details here on the science involved in the blood test, which could theoretically work on other diseases such as cancer.