{"id":176734,"date":"2025-09-29T02:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T02:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/176734\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T02:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T02:59:08","slug":"non-invasive-test-could-detect-early-warning-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/176734\/","title":{"rendered":"Non-Invasive Test Could Detect Early Warning Signs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Alzheimer's<\/a>Researchers at Northern Arizona University are developing a promising new method to detect Alzheimer\u2019s disease early by analyzing tiny microvesicles in the blood. Credit: Stock<\/p>\n

Scientists are testing a novel blood-based method to detect Alzheimer\u2019s disease by analyzing microvesicles that reveal how the brain uses glucose.<\/p>\n

Researchers at Northern Arizona University (NAU) are exploring a new approach that could allow doctors to detect Alzheimer\u2019s disease earlier and possibly slow its progression.<\/p>\n

The project is led by Travis Gibbons, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, with partial funding from the Arizona Alzheimer\u2019s Association. His work focuses on brain metabolism, particularly the way the brain processes glucose, the sugar that powers thinking, movement, and emotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe brain is like a muscle,\u201d Gibbons said. \u201cIt needs fuel to do work, and its gasoline is blood glucose. A healthy brain is greedy; it burns through glucose fast. But brain metabolism is slower when you have Alzheimer\u2019s. It can be viewed as a canary in the coal mine in the development of the disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Studying how the brain uses glucose has been a long-standing challenge because the organ is difficult to access. In the past, researchers sometimes inserted catheters into veins in the neck to draw blood as it left the brain, but that invasive procedure is far from practical for routine testing.<\/p>\n

Gibbons and his team are now testing a more practical alternative. With the help of newly available commercial kits, they can isolate and analyze microvesicles that move through the bloodstream. These tiny particles can reveal valuable information about what is happening inside brain cells without requiring invasive procedures.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these microvesicles originate in a neuron in your brain, and they\u2019re like messengers carrying cargo,\u201d Gibbons explained. \u201cWith these test kits, we can find what kind of cargo is in a microvesicle and run tests on it. It\u2019s been described as a biopsy for the brain, but much less invasive. That\u2019s the appeal of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toward Non-Invasive Alzheimer\u2019s Detection<\/p>\n

This technique, while still in development, could revolutionize how doctors detect and monitor Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Gibbons said the process is complex, requiring precision and patience, but the potential is enormous.<\/p>\n

In a previous study, Gibbons and his colleagues administered insulin through the nose, a method that allows the insulin to reach the brain more effectively than traditional injections. Afterward, his team sampled blood exiting those subjects\u2019 brains and found biomarkers indicating improved neuroplasticity. Now, they\u2019re working to detect those same markers in microvesicles.<\/p>\n

The research is unfolding in stages. First, Gibbons is testing the method in healthy individuals. Then, he\u2019ll compare results across people with mild cognitive impairment and people who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s, hoping to track the disease\u2019s progression through changes in glucose metabolism.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrain function is notoriously hard to measure, but we\u2019re getting better and better at interrogating brain function through biomarkers,\u201d Gibbons said. \u201cSoon, we might be able to help people protect their brain health and prevent Alzheimer\u2019s disease the same way we protect people from cardiovascular disease by prescribing moderate exercise and a healthy diet. That will help us manage the burden on aging people and society as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funding: Arizona Alzheimer\u2019s Consortium<\/p>\n

Gibbons, a member of the Arizona Alzheimer\u2019s Consortium (AAC), is working on the study with Emily Cope, an NAU associate professor of biological sciences and fellow AAC member; K. Riley Connor, a Ph.D. student in biological sciences at NAU; and Philip Ainslie, a professor at the University of British Columbia\u2019s Centre for Heart, Lung & Vascular Health.<\/p>\n

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers at Northern Arizona University are developing a promising new method to detect Alzheimer\u2019s disease early by analyzing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[7277,49,48,10237,84,8916,89996],"class_list":["post-176734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-alzheimers-disease","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dementia","tag-health","tag-neurology","tag-northern-arizona-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}