Longevity & AgingBlood Protein Panel Detects Alzheimer's Years Before Symptoms Appear
Researchers profiled nearly 7,000 plasma proteins across 3,300+ well-characterized individuals to find new Alzheimer's disease biomarkers. They identified 416 proteins associated with AD clinical status—294 of them newly discovered—and validated findings in over 7,000 external samples. Using machine learning, they distilled these down to a 7-protein panel that predicted clinical AD with AUC >0.72 and biomarker-defined AD with AUC >0.88. The panel was replicated across multiple cohorts and orthogonal proteomic platforms, and showed specificity for AD versus other dementias like DLB and FTD. Key biological themes included blood-brain barrier disruption, lipid dysregulation, and immune response alterations.
