THE U.S. IS in a dementia crisis. According to a recent study published in Nature Medicine, by 2060, diagnoses of cognitive decline are expected to hit a rate of 1 million a year—double what they were in 2020. That’s one of the reasons the FDA’s approval of a new test from local drug company Eli Lilly and Swiss medication company Roche is such a big deal. Developed with help from scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine, the test, called the Elecsys pTau181, uses blood-based biomarkers to determine the likelihood that someone with dementia symptoms has Alzheimer’s disease or if they’re suffering from another disorder.
Past research—much of it done at IU’s 35-year-old Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center—revealed that people with Alzheimer’s have increased levels of a protein called phosphorylated tau (often abbreviated as pTau or p-tau) 181 in their blood. In the past, specialists checked levels of that protein using expensive and invasive measures such as a spinal fluid test, but the Elecsys pTau181 is just a standard blood test that can be ordered by a family doctor for patients over age 55 with cognitive symptoms. Results are back in about a day.
The test isn’t a one-and-done diagnosis, however. If the test is negative for pTau 181, the doctor must investigate for other potential causes of dementia symptoms. If it’s positive, the patient is referred to a neurologist for further Alzheimer’s testing.
Meanwhile, IU School of Medicine has received a five-year, $16.5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to research the underlying causes of Alzheimer’s. That means within the next few years, Indy won’t just be the birthplace of the accessible Alzheimer’s test—it might also be home to the disease’s most cutting edge treatments.
