A 15-year-old British boy has seemed to found the ideal test that would help detect the possibility of Alzheimer's disease, enabling early diagnosis of the condition by 10 years before the onset of the symptoms, the Daily Telegraph breaks the news.
Determining if a person has Alzheimer's is currently difficult. There are only two ways to find out: detection through cognitive tests or by dissecting the brain but after the person is dead.
Krtin Nithiyanandam, from Epsom, Surrey, managed to devise a strong antibody that could get into the brain and attach itself into neurotoxic proteins that are usually present during the first stages of the disease. The antibodies also attach itself to fluorescent particles that could be detected during brain scan.
Krtin's innovation was shortlisted to the Google Science Fair Prize, placing him as one of the top contenders for a prestigious scholarship and mentoring to further develop his ideas.
"The main benefits of my test are that it could be used to diagnose Alzheimer's disease before symptoms start to show by focusing on pathophysiological changes, some of which can occur a decade before symptoms are prevalent," Krtin discussed his work in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
Neurodegenerative diseases, including dementia and Alzheimer's disease are very difficult to detect as well. Treatment is also impossible because of the blood-brain barrier, the cell layer that wraps around the brain making it impossible for anything essential to pass through it.
Krtin's antibodies, however can enter the thick layer, as proven by the lab tests which show that his antibodies prevented the toxic proteins from developing, thus, arresting any Alzhiemer's development.
Around 5.3 million Americans and another 850,000 Britons are diagnosed with dementia, with Alzheimer's as the most common type.
"Some of my new preliminary research has suggested that my diagnostic probe could simultaneously have therapeutic potential as well as diagnostic," reported Krtin.
