A simple urine test can detect Alzheimer's during the early phase of development

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(

AD) is the most common form of dementia, characterized by progressive cognitive and behavioral disorders.

Appropriate

is essential to lengthen the time it takes for cognitive deficiencies and irreversible dementia to appear, a phenomenon that many authors consider should be accompanied by

, even more so taking into account the

and the enormous

caused for this disease.

Sensitive

is feasible, but also complex because it is

routinely for the elderly population.

Imaging

, detect early amyloid deposits, but they are expensive methods that also expose patients to radiation.

sensitive biomarker

Biological

come mainly from

such as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and

, which, however, appear to be effective for early diagnosis.

Also the

is complex and may reflect marked changes in metabolism and injury.

Some studies have shown that

have the potential to detect patients with AD.

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Health.

This is the story of how a Swedish mutation has served to design the first drug that will slow down the progression of Alzheimer's

• Writing: PILAR PÉREZMadrid

• Writing: JOSETXU L. PIÑEIRO (Illustration)

This is the story of how a Swedish mutation has served to design the first drug that will slow down the progression of Alzheimer's

And this is where the data from a new study, developed by researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, comes in,

as a sensitive urinary biomarker that can reveal Alzheimer's disease. in its initial phase.

The study suggests that a simple urinalysis could reveal whether someone has Alzheimer's disease in its earliest stages, which would be a giant step towards applying

the disease globally. and on a global scale.

A total

healthy volunteers with

or with different

, ranging from subjective cognitive impairment to established disease, participated.

The researchers analyzed urine and blood samples from the participants and performed

.

The study found that

levels were significantly increased in all Alzheimer's groups compared with healthy controls, including the early-stage subjective cognitive impairment group, and correlated with cognitive decline.

"This suggests that formic acid could act as a sensitive biomarker for early-stage Alzheimer's disease," says

, one of the study authors, from the Department of Gerontology, Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

Interestingly, when researchers looked at urinary formic acid levels

with Alzheimer's biomarkers

, they found they could more accurately predict

of the disease the patient was in.

However,

is needed to understand the relationship between Alzheimer's and formic acid, the authors say.

In recent years, abnormal

metabolism has been recognized as one of the essential features of

age-related

A previous study by this team already reported a correlation between urinary formaldehyde levels and cognitive function, suggesting that

is a potential biomarker for the

.

memory formation

Yan Wei

, co-author of the research, from the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing, explains that "in the brain, formaldehyde can promote the

under physiological conditions, and

of formaldehyde can cause protein denaturation and impair memory function."

Formic acid is a

, and some formic acid is excreted in the urine as formate.

"Urinary formic acid reflects formaldehyde metabolism and has the potential to be a

for the diagnosis of

in AD," Wei explains.

The objective, according to this researcher, was to explore the relationship between urinary formic acid levels and

of AD.

The relationship between urinary formic acid and allele 4 of apolipoprotein E

, a high-risk gene for AD, was further explored.

The 4 allele is the most important genetic risk factor for AD

and is associated with various pathological changes and cognitive decline in AD.

"We compared the

plasma biomarkers and urinary formic acid, as well as the effects of A precipitation on urinary formic acid. Finally, we analyzed the level of urinary formaldehyde to see if there were

between the two indicators .

urinary tracts in diagnosis," Wei explains.

Routine exams in the elderly

Systematic evaluation of this analysis revealed that urinary formic acid could be a

for the early diagnosis of AD.

"It showed excellent sensitivity for early detection. Urinary biomarker screening for Alzheimer's disease is

and should be performed during

," Wang said.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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