HONG KONG: A saliva test could be used in the future to detect Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms develop, a new study suggests.
Researchers looking for new ways to catch the disease early revealed brain scans, memory tests and testing bodily fluids such as saliva could identify a person’s likelihood of developing it.
Shraddha Sapkota, MSc, a neuroscience graduate student at the University of Alberta, Canada, said: “Saliva is easily obtained, safe and affordable, and has promising potential for predicting and tracking cognitive decline, but we’re in the very early stages of this work and much more research is needed.
“Equally important is the possibility of using saliva to find targets for treatment to address the metabolic component of Alzheimer’s, which is still not well understood. This study brings us closer to solving that mystery.”
Sapkota and colleagues shared their research at the annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Washington, which is taking place until Wednesday.
They tested 100 patients, some with Alzheimer’s, some with mild cognitive impairment and some with normal ageing, using saliva samples, clinical diagnoses and cognitive data from a long-term large-scale investigation of human ageing (the Victoria Longitudinal Study).
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