Blood tests for the early identification of Alzheimer’s disease

The problem

It can be hard to identify individuals at the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and yet these individuals are likely to be those who would benefit most inclusion in trials of new treatments.

Our Research

We have been investigating the potential of a blood test to help identify these individuals, so that they can be recruited into clinical trials. This has involved attempts to replicate previous findings about genetic and protein biomarkers, as well attempting to discover novel AD markers, such as metabolites (small molecules like fats and vitamins).

Theme
Precision Medicine

Disease
Mental Health

Neurodegenerative Disorders

People
Nicola Voyle
Steven Kiddle
Richard Dobson

Collaborators
Claire Steves, Nicholas Ashton, Angela Hodges, Cristina-Legido Quigley and Simon Lovestone

Publications

Steven Kiddle, Claire Steves, Mitul Mehta, Andrew Simmons, Xiaohui Xu, Stephen Newhouse, Martina Sattlecker, Nicholas  Ashton, Chantal Bazenet, Richard Killick, Jihad Adnan, Eric Westman, Sally Nelson, Hilkka Soininen, Iwona Kloszewska, Patrizia Mecocci, Magda Tsolaki, Bruno Vellas, Charles Curtis, Gerome Breen, Steven Williams, Simon Lovestone, Tim Spector, and Richard Dobson. Plasma protein biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease endophenotypes in asymptomatic older twins: early cognitive decline and regional brain volumes. Translational Psychiatry

Nicola Voyle, Min Kim, Petroula Proitsi, Nicholas J Ashton, Alison L Baird, Chantal Bazenet, Abdul Hye, Sarah Westwood, Raymond Chung, Malcolm Ward, Gil D Rabinovici, Simon Lovestone, Gerome Breen, Cristina Legido-Quigley, Richard JB Dobson and Steven J Kiddle. Blood metabolite markers of Neocortical Amyloid Burden: Discovery and enrichment using candidate proteins. Translational Psychiatry (2016) 6, e719; doi:10.1038/tp.2015.205. 

Ashton*, Kiddle*, Graf, Ward, Baird, Hye, Westwood, Wong, Dobson, Rabinovici, Miller, Rosen, Torres, Zhang, Thurfjell, Covin, Hehir, Baker, Bazenet, Lovestone, AIBL research group. Blood protein predictors of brain amyloid for enrichment in clinical trials? Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring 2015.

Nicola Voyle, Aoife Keohane, Stephen Newhouse, Katie Lunnon, Caroline Johnston, Hilkka Soininen, Iwona Kloszewska, Patrizia Mecocci, Magda Tsolaki, Bruno Vellas, Simon Lovestone on behalf of the AddNeuroMed consortium, Angela Hodges, Steven Kiddle and Richard JB Dobson. A pathway based classification method for analysing gene expression for Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease 2015 Oct 15;49(3):659-69. doi: 10.3233/JAD-150440.

Nicola Voyle, David Baker, Samantha C. Burnham, Antonia Covin, Zhanpan Zhang, Dipen P. Sangurdekar, Cristina A. Tan Hehir, Chantal Bazenet, Simon Lovestone, Steven Kiddle, Richard JB. Dobson and the AIBL research group. Blood protein markers of Neocortical Amyloid-β Burden: A candidate study using SOMAscan technology. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease; 46 (2): 947 – 962.

Steven Kiddle*, Martina Sattlecker*, Petroula Proitsi, Andrew Simmons, Chantal Bazenet, Eric Westman, Sally Nelson, David Sterling, Stephen Williams, Angela Hodges, Caroline Johnston, Hilka Soininen, Iwona Kłoszewska, Patrizia Mecocci, Magda Tsolaki, Bruno Vellas, Stephen Newhouse, Simon Lovestone, And Richard Dobson (* Joint first authors). Candidate blood proteome markers of Alzheimer’s disease onset and progression: a systematic review and replication study. Accepted to Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Impact in research