A Canadian neuroscientist has claimed to have developed the world's first simple blood test to detect brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and says it may be available within two to five years.

The test, which looks for clumps of "misfolded" proteins that underlie such diseases, will enable a "definitive diagnosis" of such illnesses, which is not currently possible, researcher Neil Cashman said.

Cashman's research was backed by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, a government agency.

His new company Amorfix Life Sciences Inc. hopes to complete clinical trials to diagnose mad cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) and its human form, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, within six months.

Cashman said the tests will allow doctors to treat patients earlier when remedies are more likely to be effective.

Currently, doctors must rely on complex cognitive and memory tests, invasive spinal taps or expensive imaging tests to diagnose brain diseases and only post-mortem examinations have been conclusive until now.

"Brain diseases produce a lot of symptoms. They're tragic, untreatable, incurable diseases, but in order to make a definitive diagnosis, you require a piece of brain under the microscope," Cashman said.

"This is not a group of diseases that you could find abnormal cells like Leukemia. These are diseases that occur inside the skull, so even the best clinicians and diagnosticians are only right 80 to 90 percent of the time," he said.

Definite diagnosis could allow for earlier treatment

Because diagnosis is so difficult, most drugs are now dispensed when the disease is well into its course.

"If we had something as of the first month of Alzheimer's disease symptoms, it's likely that Aricept and similar medicines would have a greater effect on the progression of the disease," Cashman said.

At present, there is no cure for Alzheimer's, but there are treatments (such as donepezil, marketed under the name Aricept) aimed at mitigating the disease. Cashman said clinical trials for his new treatments are ongoing.

"If all goes perfectly," tests for these diseases would be available within two years, he said.

Tests for Alzheimer's, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and others will take up to five years, he said.

AFP

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