New convenient way to diagnose Alzheimer's disease from nasal discharge
Researchers from Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology, Korea, hint at a novel way of diagnosing AD in a much simpler way --collecting and analyzing specific proteins in nasal discharge samples. The new study has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The Republic of Korea, like other countries with a rapidly ageing population, is facing increasing numbers of patients with dementia, of which Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most representative type. Unfortunately, AD has no complete cure yet; but, some treatments have been proven to delay its progression. Of course, this means that timely diagnosis while the symptoms are still mild is essential to maximize a patient's quality of life.
However, currently available technologies for diagnosing AD are limited because they involve expensive machinery and invasive or inconvenient procedures.
Professor Cheil Moon, who led the study, explains how they came up with the idea: "In 2017, we found that olfactory dysfunction occurred in the early stages of AD in mice and suggested that the cause of the symptoms was induced by soluble species of amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomer accumulations in the peripheral olfactory system. We hypothesized that soluble Aβ oligomers could be detectable in nasal discharge and that they may be a useful parameter to monitor disease progression." To test their hypothesis, they gathered and compared nasal discharge samples from 39 patients with AD and 21 people from an age-matched control group.
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