Alzheimer's blood marker could help detect disease years before symptoms, researchers say

BOSTON - A marker in the blood may help detect Alzheimer's disease years before a patient develops symptoms.

Alzheimer's disease begins decades before memory loss starts to show, and early diagnosis gives a patient the best chance of slowing down the disease with drugs.

Now, researchers in Europe have found that increased levels of a protein called GFAP in the blood could signal activation of immune cells in the brain and reflect changes of Alzheimer's as many as 10 years before brain damage occurs.

Alzheimer's Disease

Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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