An important step towards a better future for dementia diagnosis

Diagnosis is the key to improving the lives of people living with dementia and today it truly feels like a significant step forward has been taken.

Today, Alzheimer's Society and our partners AlzheimersResearch UK NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) with support from the players of People's Postcode Lottery were able to reveal the two amazing teams who will endeavour to get a blood test for dementia into the NHS.

A simple and inexpensive blood test for dementia is serious system disruption.

And the system needs to be disrupted.

Fewer than two-thirds of people living with dementia – the UK’s biggest killer - get a diagnosis.

Even fewer get a diagnosis which is both timely and accurate (telling them exactly which dementia they have).

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The teams

Based at the University of Oxford and University College London, the researchers will build on the current momentum into potential blood tests for dementia and will generate the evidence needed to show they can be used within the NHS.

The READ-OUT team will be led by Dr Vanessa Raymont with Dementias Platform UK researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. They will look at a range of types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies.

The ADAPT team led by Professor Jonathan Schott from UCL will focus on the most promising single biomarker* specifically for Alzheimer’s disease.

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The journey so far

It’s an incredible achievement to get to this point.

It all began just under a year ago when Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer’s Research UK and NIHR joined forces to apply for ￡5million to revolutionise dementia diagnosis.

I was proud to be part of the team that presented a compelling case which resulted in us winning this huge investment raised by players of? People’s Postcode Lottery Dream Fund.

We know that blood tests for dementia can work in clinical trials but these laboratories are far from the real world. We need to know these blood tests can work in all communities in the UK.

Over the next five years the two teams will aim to show that blood tests can be embedded into the everyday life of the NHS and demonstrate they can work for diverse communities.

This is something I’m really passionate about.

There are so many existing health inequalities within dementia. By showing that a blood test works for a diverse section of our society we can begin to break down some of these barriers.

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Diagnosis

A diagnosis is vital.

With a diagnosis people can access personalized care, support and treatments. They can plan for the future and they’ll know what condition they have. Without one they are left alone, living with an undiagnosed terminal brain condition.

If new drugs like lecanemab and donanemab are approved for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease in the UK, people will need to be diagnosed at an early stage of the disease in order to be eligible.

Right now, only 2% of people with dementia get the specialised tests needed to confirm if they’d be eligible for these new treatments.

Blood tests can be a game changer.

People are used to blood tests, they are easy to do, they are inexpensive and can be done almost anywhere from a GP’s surgery to a patient’s home.

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Charities as research funders- disrupting the paradigm

Alzheimer’s Society has been funding dementia research for decades.

Over 30 years ago, Alzheimer’s Society funded researchers produced the original ground-breaking hypothesis about how changes in the brain could lead to Alzheimer’s disease.?

In 1989, brave families affected by a rare form of familial Alzheimer’s disease were recruited with the help of Alzheimer’s Society to take part in Professor Sir John Hardy’s research.

Together, they laid the foundations for decades of research that have followed. Professor Hardy’s discovery into the potential role of amyloid put a global spotlight on dementia and sparked a race to find new treatments. As a result of their discoveries, hundreds of clinical trials have been started for Alzheimer’s disease, such as the lecanemab and donanemab clinical trials. This represents billions of pounds of investment in dementia research.

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When we set out on this journey we intended to fund one team of researchers.

However, both teams presented incredibly strong cases, and I’m thrilled all partners saw the benefits in supporting both teams.

This is ground-breaking research which can change the system and improve the lives of millions of people now and in the future.

#dementia #dementiaresearch #innovation #nhs

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*A medical sign that may indicate the presence of a condition or disease. For example, high pressure is a biomarker as is temperature.