newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Bob Nagele, a doctor and researcher at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine working in Stratford, has released ten years of analysis of the blood of Alzheimer's patients in a paper published in online journal PLoS One.

NorthJersey.com reports the test used a sophisticated computer analysis in isolating 10 autoantibodies the body produces to combat Alzheimer’s disease. The test is 95 percent accurate, takes 24 hours for results — and only uses one drop of blood.

They also found that the test predicted who had Alzheimer's and who had Parkinson's disease at an 86 percent accuracy rate.

"We know we can detect Alzheimer's disease in people who have been diagnosed, but the real exciting question is if it's possible to detect people when they are pre-symptomatic," Nagele said, according to mercyhealthsystems.org. Nagele said Alzheimer's is currently diagnosed after people experience memory problems or other unusual behavior. They undergo a detailed medical interview, a memory test and a brain MRI to check on brain shrinkage.

A former student of Nagele sent him a brain sample in 1999 to get his opinion. When Nagele applied a stain to the sample, the tissue darkened to brown, and showed proteins that shouldn't have been there.

At the recent Alzheimer's Association conference, an Australian team presented work suggesting a cerebrospinal fluid and blood test for the corrosive proteins in an Alzheimer's brain. A team said it could predict rare inherited forms of Alzheimer's through DNA indicators.