Trial for blood tests to diagnose dementia accepts first participants

The Blood Biomarker Challenge could bring dementia blood tests to the NHS within five years. Now, research teams are gearing up to admit their first participants onto their trials in the coming months.

The research teams will build on recent breakthroughs in dementia blood tests, generating the evidence needed for them to be used in the NHS to improve diagnosis of dementia.

Professor Fiona Carragher, Chief Policy and Research Officer at Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Around one million people in the UK are living with dementia, but a third of these have not received a diagnosis. This is despite us knowing that an early and accurate diagnosis is key to ensuring everyone has access to the treatment, care and support they deserve.

Blood testing offers the potential to revolutionise dementia diagnosis in the future, so it’s incredibly exciting to see this project coming to life.

 I’ve spent decades working in science and the NHS, and it really does feel like we’re making progress in the way we treat dementia in this country but we can only treat people once they have that all-important diagnosis. This crucial bit of research is getting us closer than we’ve ever been before.”

The Blood Biomarker Challenge is a collaborative, multi-million pound programme supported by Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer’s Research UK, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Gates Ventures and players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

Updates from the DPUK research team

The REAl World Dementia OUTcomes (READ-OUT) team at Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) based at the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge, is part of the Blood Biomarker Challenge.

The team has welcomed its first participants into the study, at the Warneford Hospital in Oxford. They're led by Professor Vanessa Raymont, Professor James Rowe and Dr Ivan Koychev with DPUK researchers.

The team will assess multiple new and existing blood tests, looking at a range of dementia types including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and dementia with Lewy bodies. The researchers will also look at whether the blood tests can help detect these diseases at various stages and if the results need to be interpreted differently in people from different ethnic backgrounds or with other health conditions, such as kidney disease.

They will recruit more than 3,100 people from 28 DPUK sites across all four nations. Participants are being recruited through NHS memory clinics and community buses across the UK. They'll feed into a clinical trial to assess if a panel of blood tests add benefit to the current NHS memory clinic pathway.

Professor Vanessa Raymont, Associate Director, Dementias Platform UK and Senior Clinical Researcher, University of Oxford, said: “We’re in an incredibly exciting time for dementia research right now, with new drugs that can slow early Alzheimer’s disease. 

"Although these are not yet approved for use in the NHS, we urgently need to revolutionise the way we diagnose people in this country - it will be nothing short of disastrous if people are unable to get a diagnosis early enough to benefit from the new drugs, once they do become available. In addition, many people now want and need the more accurate diagnosis blood biomarkers could provide.

“Blood biomarker tests could be the answer to this problem and the good news is that the technology already exists. What we’re missing is the proof that they really do work in a real-world setting. Our research aims to show how the blood tests perform in different UK populations.

Our team will be looking at a range of blood tests and we’ll be recruiting participants from a broad range of people including those from minority ethnic groups, the very elderly and people with other medical conditions. 

Updates from the ADAPT research team

The second team in the Blood Biomarker Challenge is being led by Professor Jonathan Schott and Dr Ashvini Keshavan at University College London. The ADAPT team (Alzheimer’s disease Diagnosis And Plasma pTau217) will focus on the most promising biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease, called p-tau217. 

This reflects levels of two hallmark proteins found inside the brain in Alzheimer’s disease – amyloid and tau. The researchers will carry out a clinical trial to see whether measuring p-tau217 in the blood increases the rate of diagnosis for Alzheimer’s disease both in people with early dementia, but also in those with mild, progressive problems with memory. The ADAPT team expect to admit their first participants onto their trial in the coming months.

These complementary research approaches will maximise the chances of providing the evidence needed to prove that blood tests are ready for use in the NHS. They will pave the way for them to be made available to all who might benefit within the next five years.

The real stories behind the studies

Participant Stephanie Everill, 67, from Abingdon in Oxfordshire, said,  “I was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment about a year ago. My mum had Alzheimer’s, so it’s something I’ve seen first-hand. The scans I had at the hospital showed that my condition is leaning towards Alzheimer’s disease, but I haven’t had that diagnosed officially yet. 

I’m getting quite forgetful, and I hope that taking part in this study might mean a faster diagnosis and access to treatments for myself and others in the future.

Dr Sheona Scales, Director of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Dementia is the leading cause of death in the UK, yet our loved ones can be left anxiously waiting for up to a year for a dementia diagnosis, and even longer in deprived areas.

“The way dementia is diagnosed has barely changed for nearly two decades and requires an urgent rehaul. This has become even more critical as we look to a more hopeful future in which dementia becomes a treatable condition.

“Blood tests are showing great promise and they’re quicker, cheaper and easier to administer than current tests. So, it’s incredibly exciting to see the first steps happening with the Blood Biomarker Challenge, which is set to move the dial on dementia diagnosis, giving people the answers they desperately need.”