The marketing of a diagnostic kit for Alzheimer’s disease from a simple blood test has been authorized in Japan, its manufacturer announced on Thursday. This is a rare breakthrough in the field of this widespread neurodegenerative disease.
The Japanese company Sysmex Corporation has received the green light from the country’s health authorities for this Alzheimer’s screening kit. It declares in a press release its desire to launch this minimally invasive diagnostic tool “as quickly as possible”.
Sysmex indicates that its system can measure in just over a quarter of an hour the level of accumulation in the blood of the protein beta-amyloid, one of the main biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease.
Other expensive or invasive diagnostics
Other methods are already available to diagnose this pathology, but they are generally costly or invasive (brain imaging, lumbar puncture to collect cerebrospinal fluid), while it is crucial to detect Alzheimer’s as early as possible in an attempt to slow down progress.
Other blood tests are in development elsewhere in the world or are awaiting marketing authorizations.
Improving early detection
“There is an urgent need for simple, cheap, non-invasive and easily accessible diagnostic tools” to improve early detection of Alzheimer’s, underlines the American NGO Alzheimer’s Association on its website.
In the future, blood tests “will most likely revolutionize the diagnostic process for Alzheimer’s and all other dementias,” she writes.
A medicine that brings hope
Alzheimer’s disease remains incurable to this day. Last November, however, additional clinical data confirmed the potential of a new drug, lecanemab. It would significantly slow down the cognitive decline of patients followed for 18 months.
This drug developed by the American pharmaceutical group Biogen and the Japanese Eisai (which is also a partner of Sysmex) also has sometimes severe adverse effects, but it has been widely hailed by the international scientific community as a very promising advance.
>>Lire: Positive results confirmed for an anti-Alzheimer’s drug
Sharp increase in future cases
More than 55 million people worldwide suffer from dementia, a number that is expected to rise to 130 million by 2050 as life expectancy increases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Alzheimer’s disease accounts for approximately 60 to 70% of cases.
Dementia is a major public health problem in Japan, the oldest country in the world (29.1% of its inhabitants were aged 65 and over in 2022, a new record).
afp/oang