Alzheimer's biomarkers found

LOS ANGELES, July 21 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say measurable molecular indicators, or biomarkers, may predict Alzheimer's disease before symptoms appear.

The University of California, Los Angeles, researchers found the amounts of certain proteins change as this brain disease -- marked by memory loss, confusion, mood swings and other problems -- progresses.

The researchers looked at Familial Alzheimer's -- a form of the disease marked by certain gene mutations that affects less than 2 percent of Alzheimer's patients.

"Since we knew that 50 percent of first-degree relatives will inherit the same rare mutations, we were able to study the biochemical changes occurring in the cerebrospinal fluid and blood as long as 30 years before the subjects were likely to develop the disease themselves," study leader John Ringman says in a statement.

Specifically, the study, published in the journal Neurology, found a fibrous beta-amyloid protein called AB42 elevated in the plasma of Familial Alzheimer's mutation carriers -- long before the development of obvious dementia. The level then seems to drop as the disease progresses.