{"id":235148,"date":"2026-04-14T06:50:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/blood-test-can-predict-alzheimers-disease-progression-years-before-symptoms-or-brain-scan-changes"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:50:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:50:50","slug":"blood-test-can-predict-alzheimers-disease-progression-years-before-symptoms-or-brain-scan-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/blood-test-can-predict-alzheimers-disease-progression-years-before-symptoms-or-brain-scan-changes","title":{"rendered":"Blood test can predict Alzheimer\u2019s disease progression years before symptoms or brain scan changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

A study by investigators at Mass General Brigham has found that a blood test of plasma phosphorylated tau 217 (pTau217), an Alzheimer\u2019s disease biomarker, can predict the progression of amyloid PET scan changes and cognitive decline in cognitively healthy older adults. The findings may help push back the clock to enable simpler, earlier disease prediction and indicate who may be at risk for cognitive decline. The results are published in Nature Communications<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to think that PET scan detection was the earliest sign of Alzheimer\u2019s disease progression, revealing amyloid accumulation in the brain 10 to 20 years before symptoms appear,\u201d said lead author Hyun-Sik Yang, MD, a neurologist with Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute and an associate member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. \u201cBut now we are seeing that pTau217 can be detected years earlier, well before clear abnormalities appear on amyloid PET scans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration<\/a> cleared the first blood test for Alzheimer\u2019s disease, paving the way for a cheaper, less invasive alternative to lumbar punctures and PET scans. The new study by Yang and colleagues adds important evidence about the predictive potential of these kinds of blood tests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A study by investigators at Mass General Brigham has found that a blood test of plasma phosphorylated tau 217 (pTau217), an Alzheimer\u2019s disease biomarker, can predict the progression of amyloid PET scan changes and cognitive decline in cognitively healthy older adults. The findings may help push back the clock to enable simpler, earlier disease prediction [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}