With the help of an mmuno-infrared sensor, they were able to identify the 68 test subjects who later developed Alzheimer’s disease with a high degree of test accuracy.
The researchers looked at other biomarkers with the SIMOA technology, specifically the P-tau181 biomarker, which is currently being proposed as a promising biomarker candidate in various studies.
“Unlike in the clinical phase, however, this marker is not suitable for the early symptom-free phase of Alzheimer’s disease,” Professor Klaus Gerwert said in a summary of the results of the comparative study.
“Surprisingly, we found that the concentration of glial fibre protein (GFAP) can indicate the disease up to 17 years before the clinical phase, even though it does so much less precisely than the immuno-infrared sensor.”
Furthermore, by putting together amyloid-beta misfolding and GFAP concentration, the researchers were able to further increase the reliability of the test in the symptom-free stage.
