Alzheimer's disease: How a sugar molecule may help with earlier diagnosis and treatment
New research shows a connection between glycans (sugar molecules in the blood) and tau (proteins that play a role in the development of dementia).
The data could open the door to low-cost, non-invasive diagnoses that could predict Alzheimer’s disease up to a decade in advance.
With dementia and Alzheimer’s diagnoses on the rise, there’s increased need for better diagnostic and treatment options.
The researchers’ goal is to provide doctors with a better way to predict Alzheimer’s before onset.
Researchers are reporting a connection between sugar molecules in the bloodstream and Alzheimer’s disease — a discovery they say could lead to an inexpensive, effective screening procedure that could diagnose the disease years before onset.
The researchers from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, published their findings this week in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Robin Zhou, the study’s first author and a medical student and affiliated researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at Karolinska Insitute, told Medical News Today that the data builds on prior research by the same group that found a link between tau proteins — which are known to play a role in the development of neurobiological disorders — and the levels of a specific glycan.
“Just as in cerebrospinal fluid, we discovered a correlation between levels of this glycan epitope and levels of the pathogenic tau protein, linking this glycan to Alzheimer’s pathogenesis,” he explained. “However, we were surprised to find that when analyzing the glycan to tau ratio in individuals, it seemed to be able to predict Alzheimer’s disease up to a decade before diagnosis.”
Glycans are sugar molecules found on the surface of proteins and are one of the major building blocks of life.
Identifying bisected N-acetylglucosamine can give doctors a pathway toward spotting individuals with a higher risk of Alzheimer’s. In fact, the study could open a way for a simple screening procedure capable of predicting the onset of Alzheimer’s 10 years in advance.
At the onset of Alzheimer’s, neurons in the brain die. Ensuring that treatment begins early when not many neurons have died is crucial to reversing Alzheimer’s.
In the study, researchers measured the blood glycan levels of participants. They found that individuals with matching levels of glycans and tau were more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s-type dementia.
“We demonstrate in our study that blood levels of glycans are altered early during the development of the disease,” said Robin Zhou, first author of the study as well as a medical student and affiliated researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS) at Karolinska Institutet, according to an April 12 press release.
Given the fact that there’s a need for low-cost, non-invasive screening screening methods for Alzheimer’s, the researchers say the findings couldn’t have come at a better time.
“This could mean that we’ll be able to predict the risk of Alzheimer’s disease with only a blood test and a memory test.”
Click HERE to see the full study results.