Blood-based detection of pTau181 could identify pathological Alzheimer’s disease

A recent advancement in the development of a blood test to detect pathological Alzheimer’s disease in people showing signs of dementia has been reported by researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF; CA, USA). Their test focuses on the abnormal accumulation of pTau181.

Within the study, which has recently been published in Nature Medicine, researchers used this new test to measure the concentration of pTau181 in plasma samples of more than 400 participants (aged from 58 to 70). Their analysis demonstrated that pTau181 in plasma could differentiate healthy participants from those with Alzheimer’s pathology, as well as differentiate those with Alzheimer’s pathology from frontotemporal lobar degeneration.