They discover a possible route to diagnose Alzheimer’s from a blood sample

The pharmaceutical Blanca Acha Santamaría It has described that certain changes in DNA methylation could be used as potential tools “less invasive and more accessible“To detect Alzheimer’s disease from a blood sample. This advance could allow detection”earlier and precise“From this neurodegenerative ailment that mainly affects memory and other cognitive functions.

In depth

This is collected in his doctoral thesis, defended at the Public University of Navarra (UPNA) and developed in NavarrabiomedBiomedical Research Center of the Foral Executive and the Academic Institution.

DNA methylation is a biological process that acts as Un control mechanism About our genes. In this process, the union of a small chemical group occurs (A methyl group) A specific part of DNA, which can activate or deactivate gene expression and thus affect the normal functioning of cells, the UPNA explains in a press release.

Blanca Acha made the identification of certain changes In the methylation of the DNA of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, compared to healthy controls, so the use of surface methylation biomarkers in peripheral blood is postulated as “a promising tool in the improvement of the diagnostic precision of this ailment as part of a panel of peripheral biomarkers,” according to the researcher. In addition, its results underline The importance of an investigation “from a gender perspective” in the search for new diagnostic tools in Alzheimer’s disease.

More details

Also, these results “They support the possible involvement of DNA methylation in Alzheimer’s disease pathology“says Blanca Acha, whose thesis has been directed by Maite Mendioroz Iriarte and Idoia Blanco Luquinresearchers from the Navarrabiomed Neuroepigenetic Unit, and tutoring by Ignacio Encío MartínezProfessor of the Department of Health Sciences of the UPNA.

For the realization of his doctoral thesis, Blanca Acha has enjoyed a predoctoral contract for training in health research, funded by the Carlos III Research Institute, an entity that also granted a grant in the call of the Health Research Fund (FIS) to the neuroepigenetic group, where the doctoral thesis has been developed.

So, he could complete A Predoctoral Stay in the Memory Unit of the Neurology Service of the Hospital de la Santa Creu I Sant Pau de Barcelona.

To take into account

Blanca Achagraduated in pharmacy by the University of Salamanca, is a specialist of the clinical analysis area and member of the Navarrabiomed Neuroepigenetic Research Unit. During his research career, he has participated in four research projects and presented 44 Communications in National and International Congresses in the area of ​​the Clinical Laboratory and Neurology.

In addition, he has published thirteen articles in national and international magazines in the area of ​​the Clinical Laboratory and Neurology and is the author of two chapters in the books’Laboratory Medicine Manual for Primary Care‘ and ‘Neurodegenerative and prion diseases. The importance of the laboratory report‘.