Scientists have discovered that older women destined to develop Alzheimer's disease (AD) have high blood levels of a protein linked to pregnancy years before showing symptoms.

More than 26 million people worldwide already have AD, and the numbers are rising with the aging of the population. Doctors can prescribe any of several drugs to slow the disease’s advance. However, it is important to start treatment as early as possible. Unfortunately, no test exists to diagnose patients before obvious memory loss and other symptoms appear.

Theo Luider and colleagues at the Erasmus Medical Center (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) looked for proteins in blood that might be used in a test for early diagnosis of AD. They examined blood samples of 86 people aged 60-90 who participated in a larger study of aged-related brain changes conducted in The Netherlands. They found that significant elevations in pregnancy zone protein (PZP) occurred in women an average of 4 years before diagnosis of AD. Scientists knew that PZP levels rise during pregnancy, but this was the first link with AD. They also discovered the apparent source of the PZP in the brain of these women, who were not pregnant: PZP was being produced in senile plaques, degenerated areas of the brain associated with AD.

The study was presented online in the Journal of Proteome Research on September 1, 2011.

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