Project description:
Detecting Alzheimer’s earlier: Blood test confirms first disease stage of Alzheimer’s disease – even if only subjective problems are present
People who notice a decline in their memory or thinking skills may already show early signs of Alzheimer’s – even before psychological tests show abnormal results or everyday life is affected. In our study, we were able to show for the first time that a blood test can detect this very early disease phase, provided that certain protein deposits in the brain are also present. In particular, the blood biomarker phospho-Tau 181 (pTau181) was already elevated in these individuals and increased more rapidly over time. This marker also predicted future cognitive decline. Our findings support earlier detection of Alzheimer’s and more targeted prevention strategies – at the earliest time when the brain is not yet severely damaged.
Publication:
Mengel, D. et al. Blood biomarkers confirm subjective cognitive decline (SCD) as a distinct molecular and clinical stage within the NIA-AA framework of Alzheimer´s disease. Mol Psychiatry (2025)
Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-025-03021-0
Submitting the Paper of the Month:
Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung is using the series “Paper of the Month” to report in an exemplary and hot-off-the-press style on the outstanding work being done by the scientists it supports. We regularly present publications which have recently appeared in especially renowned journals, have emerged from foundation funding and been given appropriate acknowledgment. This is done in the respective categories “Original Paper” and “Review”. In the case of each of these publications, the first author and/or senior author are being funded by the foundation.
We invite all project managers, fellowship recipients and members of graduate study programs to send their work in accordance with the stated criteria as proposal for Paper of the Month to Ms. Anne Asschenfeldt (a.asschenfeldt@ekfs.de).
More Paper of the Month can be found here.
