Alzheimer’s tests costing as little as £20 a time will be available on the NHS within a year. The Dementia Research Institute at University College London says it has the capacity to analyse 100,000 blood samples a year. Its forecast that NHS Alzheimer’s testing will begin within 12 months comes after the leading blood test for the disease – which examines a protein called p-tau217 – proved a highly promising indicator over the past year in research.
The UCL researchers must complete a formal validation process for regulators, but are confident this will be successfully done by this time next year. Testing through blood samples, which costs £20 to £100, will lead to more people being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It will also indicate whether those with only mild memory impairment need either of the two other far more expensive tests for Alzheimer’s.
In a small number of cases, the tests could even reveal non-symptomatic genetic cases. In all cases, early Alzheimer’s diagnosis would provide a highly significant advantage for treatment with two new drugs, which are more effective the earlier they are taken. Dr Ashvini Keshavan, Senior Clinical Research Fellow at UCL, said: “Blood tests will be up and running within 12 months – of that I’m fairly confident.
Twelve months is a conservative estimate, it could be by the end of this year.”.