Non-invasive diagnostic test for Alzheimer's disease

The first non-invasive diagnostic test for Alzheimer's disease has been licensed by UCLA to Siemens, to undergo clinical trials under an investigational new drug (IND) application agreed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

This technique could help with the early diagnosis of Alzheimers disease as well as tracking disease progression.

The test could also greatly increase the speed of clinical trials of new drugs, greatly increasing the efficiency of Alzheimer's drug development, speeding the current generation of Alzheimer's drugs along the pipeline.

Commenting on the new technique to DrugResearcher.com, Professor Clive Ballard, Alzheimer's Society director of research, told that the ability to diagnose at the earliest possible stage is of huge importance to people with Alzheimer's disease and the new research could prove significant in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

Neuropathological studies have shown that beta-amyloid and another protein called tau, accumulate in abnormal patterns during ageing and particularly during the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The build-up of these lesions may even begin before the age of 30.

The study indicated that patients with Alzheimer's disease have a significantly higher retention of FDDNP biomarker in the brain than control subjects or dementia sufferers. The FDDNP-PET scan showed considerably better differentiation between sufferers and non-sufferers than magnetic resonance imaging and PET scans using other imaging agents.