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Speaker 1: Melbourne researchers say a new blood test for Alzheimer's was

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Speaker 1: found to be ninety two percent accurate in detecting the disease.

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Speaker 1: The Flory Institute says, the good thing about this test

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Speaker 1: the other good thing, I mean, just developing that test

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Speaker 1: is pretty cool. But the other good thing is this

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Speaker 1: test can be analyzed on common pathology equipment and it

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Speaker 1: doesn't need expensive or specialized devices. Now we're about to

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Speaker 1: talk to a researcher in this but the test was

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Speaker 1: able to identify whether a patient was at an intermediate

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Speaker 1: or advanced stage. So really positive development by researchers in Melbourne.

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Speaker 1: And on the line is Professor Chris Rowe, who is

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Speaker 1: as I understand it, with RM in Melbourne and can

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Speaker 1: have all the Flory Institute and can certainly have a

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Speaker 1: chat about this. Professor Rowe, good morning Lodding. This is

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Speaker 1: positive two fronts. One you've got a test that is

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Speaker 1: ninety two percent accurate. The second is it's not an

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Speaker 1: expensive process to find the results.

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Speaker 2: No, no, we're still going to get it approved by

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Speaker 2: the TGA and widely available, but it's a dramatic reduction

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Speaker 2: in the cost for these sorts of blood tests. You

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Speaker 2: can get your blood sent to America now, but it

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Speaker 2: costs you one thousand, five hundred dollars and it's tested

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Speaker 2: on highly specialized equipment. But now we've shown that on

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Speaker 2: routine advanced pathology equipment, high throughput automated that can do

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Speaker 2: about two hundred and fifty tests an hour get reliable results.

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Speaker 2: So that's going to bring the cost down to my

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Speaker 2: estimate would be about one hundred dollars or less per test.

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Speaker 1: How did you come about, in Layman's terms, to find

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Speaker 1: this out? Because obviously having specialized equipment was was the

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Speaker 1: way to go, and what suddenly a litmus test or

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Speaker 1: something was done. You worked out you can be done

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Speaker 1: a lot more effectively.

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Speaker 2: No, I can't take credit for discovering this. What it

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Speaker 2: is is a tiny amount of cowl that builds up

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Speaker 2: in the brain and leaks out into the blood. And

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Speaker 2: you've been able to measure it in Cerebro's spinal fluid

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Speaker 2: with a lumber puncture for a few years, and that

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Speaker 2: was actually the Swedes that discovered this, and then people

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Speaker 2: have been searching all around the world for trying to

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Speaker 2: find it in blood. So a few groups, including some

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Speaker 2: people at the Floory working with a Japanese group show

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Speaker 2: that you could detect it in blood, and other companies

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Speaker 2: did the same sort of thing, and we've since been

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Speaker 2: testing it out finding which is the best approach to use,

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Speaker 2: and this one looks very good.

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Speaker 1: Okay, does it need more extensive tests to prove and

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Speaker 1: can we get it to one hundred percent accuracy?

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Speaker 2: Well? Probably not. Ninety two percent is pretty good. You

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Speaker 2: consider that the current diagnostic ac is seventy percent, and

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Speaker 2: that's that's when you go to see a specialist. If

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Speaker 2: a specialist tells you you've got you've got our Timer's disease,

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Speaker 2: they're only correct seventy percent of the time. This blood

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Speaker 2: test takes that up to over ninety percent. And in fact,

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Speaker 2: in our work, if you have significant memory and other

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Speaker 2: problems and you've got a positive result, then it's over

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Speaker 2: ninety five percent chance that you've got ninety five percent

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Speaker 2: likely that you've got the disease.

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Speaker 1: Now does this pave the way for any breakthrough to

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Speaker 1: reversing Alzheimer's.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it will help choose people for the anti amyloid

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Speaker 2: antibody therapies that are now being used around the world

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Speaker 2: except in Australia. Because the TGA just didn't register the

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Speaker 2: first one, which is a bit of a pity. And

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Speaker 2: it will also help select people most suitable for that

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Speaker 2: treatment because it looks like that sort of treatment it

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Speaker 2: works so well if your brain is already chock full

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Speaker 2: of towel protein, and this level in the blood does

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Speaker 2: directly reflect how much towel you've gotten the brain, so

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Speaker 2: it can detect whether you got Alzheimer's disease. But of

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Speaker 2: course I can also tell you who's going to respond

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Speaker 2: best to the treatments.

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Speaker 1: How does the brain feel with that substance in the

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Speaker 1: first place.

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Speaker 2: Very slow process starts with amyloid plaques. Amyloid is a

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Speaker 2: protein that's normally made and cleared from the brain, but

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Speaker 2: clearing from the brain slows down as we get older,

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Speaker 2: and it starts to build up. It clumps together and

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Speaker 2: gums up brain cells and causes a bit of inflammation,

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Speaker 2: and then somehow causes phosphorylation of taw which means you

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Speaker 2: get this towel starting to build up in cells, which

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Speaker 2: starts killing brain cells, and then the symptoms appear. This

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Speaker 2: whole process takes thirty years, and so with these tests

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Speaker 2: we can actually start detecting the press of our time

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Speaker 2: as diseased ten or more years before symptoms. But I'm

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Speaker 2: not suggesting that at the moment unless we have a

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Speaker 2: treatment and that it's in the asymptomatic. If your treatment

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Speaker 2: before you have symptoms is in trial at the moment,

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Speaker 2: including around Australia, but we haven't got the results. It's

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Speaker 2: going to be a year or two before we have

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Speaker 2: the results of the benefits of doing that.

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Speaker 1: Does diet or exercise is that proven to be any

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Speaker 1: deterrent to this?

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Speaker 2: The evidence is pretty compelling that in midlife, in your fifties,

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Speaker 2: for example, you're a regular exerciser and you eat a

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Speaker 2: sensible diet and you've got some brain stimulation and you

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Speaker 2: don't smoke, and you do all the sensible things for

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Speaker 2: your help, that does reduce your risk of dementia later

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Speaker 2: in life. The trick is you've got to start and

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Speaker 2: you've got to keep at it. Once you've got the symptoms,

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Speaker 2: it may slow progression a little bit, but that's not

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Speaker 2: entirely clear.

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Speaker 1: Interesting but certainly positive news up front. Christopher Rowe really

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time explaining that. Thank you. Thank you, Professor

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Speaker 1: Christopher Rowe from the Flory Institute with researchers developing a

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Speaker 1: new blood test that's found to be ninety two percent

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Speaker 1: accurate in detecting Alzheimer's, which is fantastic, and the better

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Speaker 1: news it can be analyzed on common pathology equipment, which

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Speaker 1: saves a lot of money. Obviously, can be done quite

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Speaker 1: rapidly and doesn't require expensive specialized devices, so good news

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Speaker 1: all round.