Blood circRNAs may predict Alzheimer’s before symptoms emerge

A blood-based circRNA signature could help identify early Alzheimer’s biology and progression risk, offering a promising new layer beyond amyloid and tau testing.

Study: Blood-based circular RNAs for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Image Credit: Andrii Vodolazhskyi / Shutterstock

In a recent study published in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers identified circular ribonucleic acids (circRNAs) in blood with high predictive value for biomarker-confirmed early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis. Combining these circRNAs with established markers, such as phosphorylated tau-217 (pTau217), yielded the highest predictive ability. These findings suggest that circRNA investigations could eventually complement blood-based AD biomarker panels to identify people with early AD biology or elevated progression risk. However, the findings need to be validated in larger, diverse prospective clinical cohorts.

AD is the leading cause of dementia. Since pathological alterations in this condition appear before cognitive decline, scientists are developing new strategies to detect AD early and support timely intervention aimed at slowing disease progression. Early identification of the disease before clinical symptoms appear could enable prompt treatment and better clinical planning, and may improve outcomes when paired with effective interventions, while potentially reducing mortality associated with severe disease.