He acts for a long time in silence and then, when she starts stealing the memories of a lifetime it’s already too late to stop her. It’s the drama of Alzheimer’s disease and it’s why one of the goals we set ourselves is to have large-scale screening can help detect disease at an early stage. A new study led by Chinese researchers and published in ‘Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience’ suggests that formic acid could be a sensitive biomarker capable of fulfilling the goal of early diagnosis, potentially paving the way for cheap and convenient disease screening , based on a simple urine test.
Study authors Yifan Wang and colleagues tested a large group of Alzheimer’s disease patients of varying levels of severity and a control group with normal cognition to identify differences in urinary biomarkers.
Experts have identified so urinary formic acid as a sensitive marker of cognitive decline. A total of 574 people participated in the study. The researchers analyzed the participants’ urine and blood samples and performed psychological evaluations. “Urine formic acid showed excellent sensitivity for early Alzheimer’s screening,” said the authors. “Detection of urinary biomarkers of Alzheimer’s is convenient and cost-effective and should be performed during routine physical examinations of older adults.”