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Author: Alejandro Luarte, associate researcher at the IMPACT Center.
A few days ago, La Tercera published a news article about a blood test capable of detecting Alzheimer’s disease with 92% accuracy. Unlike traditional techniques such as lumbar punctures or PET scans, this new test is simpler and more accessible, as it is based on the detection of the MTBR-tau243 protein.
Strategies for measuring brain proteins in plasma are becoming increasingly sensitive and reliable. This has made it possible to identify blood markers such as p-Tau217 and, more recently, eMTBR-tau243. The presence of these proteins in the blood is strongly correlated with brain damage associated with cognitive impairment and various forms of dementia that affect the global population.
In the future, these strategies are expected to become widespread, as they are minimally invasive and rapid. However, one of the main challenges facing these technologies is variability between populations. So far, the results—although very promising—remain restricted to the research field and have not reached routine clinical use.
Part of the research supported by IMPACT seeks to contribute to the non-invasive detection of brain pathologies through the innovative use of plasma extracellular vesicles. These potentially very cost-effective strategies are supported by image analysis using deep learning. We are very excited about some of the results, although there is still a long way to go.