Possibility of Predicting Alzheimer’s With Saliva Test

They broke down the saliva of the people participating in the study by using liquid chromography-mass spectrometry in order to find out which substances were present in the saliva of the Alzheimer’s patients and to see if the substances were different in the saliva of the healthy people.

Mild cognitive decline and the more progressive Alzheimer’s disease become increasingly inevitable for some people as they age. Saliva is simple to obtain, easily transportable, and has been successfully used in a variety of diseases and conditions. However, many diagnosis techniques can be costly or invasive. Our work shows that loneliness, like depression, is associated with accelerated cognitive decline in older Americans.

In comparison to testing for Alzheimer’s biomarkers, such as beta-amyloid and tau, testing saliva is easy, cheap, and noninvasive.

Experts like Reiss believe the study could be missing important confounding factors like coexisting illness, medications, hydration level, tobacco use and other variables that could affect what’s found in the saliva samples.

While the saliva test holds great promise for early detection that would allow doctors to someday delay or prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s, some healthcare professionals remain skeptical.

Along the same lines of research, a recent study published in the journal Neurology found a blood test may predict whether a person will suffer from Alzheimer’s within the next two to three years.

At AAIC 2015, Yaffe, Hoang and colleagues reported that study participants with low levels of physical activity over 25 years had significantly worse cognition in mid-life, adjusting for age, race, sex, education, smoking, alcohol, BMI, and hypertension. The results showed that a pattern emerged among those with memory loss or Alzheimer’s; 10 types of lipids in the blood changed in similar ways. Furthermore, brain imaging and blood tests must be done in order to complete the results and be able to detect if the disease is present. According to Dekhytar, families with a known risk of Alzheimer’s or memory impairment should take the study’s findings into consideration and begin prevention early with an emphasis on succeeding in grade school. As a part of the Alzheimer’s Association’s research program, AAIC serves as a catalyst for generating new knowledge about dementia and fostering a vital, collegial research community.

“This is something you can do something about”, Yaffe told reporters at a briefing early Monday at the annual Alzheimer’s Association worldwide Conference in Washington.

Jack Jr. CR, Knopman DS, Mielke MM et al.

In a second study, Hui-Xin Wang, PhD, of the Aging Research Center also at Karolinska Institutet, confirmed the protective effects of early academic performance on later dementia risk.