July 8, 2014

biomarkers for Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s disease is the commonest cause of dementia, affecting around 800,000 people in the UK. Unfortunately, drug trials have not been promising and whilst there is debate, one suggested reason for this is that we are spotting and treating the disease too late. Many scientists believe the key is to conduct trials during the very early phases of the disease and are racing to discover a means of predicting who is likely to develop it.

One avenue of research is looking for indicator proteins in people’s blood and a group of UK researchers have been looking to see how accurate these biomarkers may be. The research is being published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

Scientists came to the Science Media Centre to discuss:

• How accurate are these biomarkers and over what length of time?
• What does this mean in the context of biomarkers?
• Does this mean anything for the ongoing debate on screening?
• Do biomarkers really matter when there is currently little that we can do to help those with Alzheimer’s?

Speakers:

Prof Simon Lovestone, Prof of Translational Neuroscience, University of Oxford and lead for the NIHR Translational Research Collaboration in Dementia

Dr Abdul Hye, Researcher in Neurodegeneration, King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry

Dr Ian Pike, Chief Operating Officer, Proteome Sciences plc

Dr Eric Karran, Director of Research, Alzheimer’s Research UK