Two clinical trials are set to be launched by University College London (UCL) and the University of Oxford’s Dementias Platform UK to identify blood tests for dementia diagnosis.
The studies will be funded by the Blood Biomarker Challenge, a multi-million-pound award given by Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, the National Institute for Health and Care Research and Gates Ventures.
Affecting more than 944,000 people in the UK, dementia is a neurodegenerative condition that affects the ability to remember, think or make decisions in everyday life.
According to a recent Memory Assessment Services Audit, only 2% of people who receive a dementia diagnosis are diagnosed using tests such as ‘gold standard’ PET scans and lumbar punctures.
Experts hope that their findings could lead to new blood tests for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common type of dementia, as well as other forms of dementia, to be delivered on the NHS within five years.
The READ-OUT study, led by researchers at the University of Oxford, will test several already-existing blood tests for a variety of forms of dementia, including AD, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies, while also exploring whether these tests can help detect these diseases at various stages.
The second study led by UCL researchers, ADAPT, will investigate a test that shows the most promise for AD, which measures levels of a protein known as p-tau217. The team will aim to determine whether measuring p-tau217 in the blood increases the rate of diagnosis for AD in people with early dementia as well as individuals with mild, progressive problems with memory.
Both research teams aim to recruit participants from sites across England to ensure their findings are applicable to the whole of the UK’s population.
Dr Sheona Scales, director of research, Alzheimer’s Research UK, commented: “We’ve seen the enormous potential that blood tests are showing for improving the diagnostic process for people and their loved ones in other disease areas.”
Professor Jonathan Schott, Alzheimer’s Research UK’s chief medical officer and co-lead of the ADAPT study, said: “If… new treatments that can slow down AD become available soon, then this will be vital.”