A blood test that can detect people at early risk of Alzheimer’s is a step closer after scientists implicated a key brain cell in the development of the disease.
As well as providing the basis for a test, their work points to a resolution of one of the persistent mysteries of the condition — why some people are apparently at high risk but never develop it.
Alzheimer’s is associated with the accumulation of a protein called amyloid in the brain. While everyone with Alzheimer’s has the telltale amyloid protein “plaques”, most of those with plaques do not go on to develop the condition…