The first blood test for Alzheimer’s disease
Randall Bateman, MD, a Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (WUSTL) neurologist, is thrilled to have contributed to the first blood test for Alzheimer’s disease — a devastating condition that affects as many as 5.8 million Americans.
Back in 2017, though, as Bateman geared up to share the discovery that would enable the test, he worried about his peers’ reaction. After all, scientists were convinced that the blood marker he studied couldn’t predict the disease.
But the WUSTL method was much more sensitive and direct than prior approaches. The resultant test — called PrecivityAD — effectively detects the amyloid plaques that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease and has proven as accurate as the previously used tools of a spinal tap or positron emission tomography (PET) scan, which are far more costly and complex.
The test, developed by a company called C2N Diagnostics that Bateman co-founded, has been available to physicians since October 2020, when it received approval through a federal lab certification program. It now awaits additional approval from the FDA.
“We’ve been hoping for a test to diagnose Alzheimer’s for more than 20 years,” says Bateman, WUSTL’s Charles F. and Joanne Knight distinguished professor of neurology. “Currently, up to half of people with Alzheimer’s are misdiagnosed.”
The road to success in science is paved with hard work and great uncertainty, he adds. “It’s a real gamble. You’re investing your life in this work, and you hope it will have a positive impact. And then it’s like, ‘Wow, it worked!’”
