Higher levels of urinary formic acid may be a potential biomarker for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s-related dementia.
Chinese researchers studying biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease that can be detected early, focused their study on urinary formic acid, a formaldehyde product; by checking participants’ formic acid levels, the researchers learned that higher levels found in urine may point to impaired cognition.
Previous research by the scientists from Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University and Fudan University, whose latest study was published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, had noted that abnormal formaldehyde metabolism is a key feature of age-related cognitive impairment.
For this new study, the authors recruited 574 participants and divided them into 5 groups, based on how they performed on cognitive function tests: healthy cognition (71 participants); subjective cognitive decline (101); cognitive impairment without mild cognitive impairment (131); mild cognitive impairment (158); Alzheimer’s disease (113).
The researchers collected urine samples from the participants to analyse their formic acid levels and also took blood samples for DNA analysis.
The groups with some level of cognitive decline all had higher urinary formic acid levels than the healthy cognition group; and participants with Alzheimer’s disease had significantly higher levels of formic acid in their urine than those with healthy cognition.
The scientists also found a negative correlation between formic acid levels in urine and cognitive testing in the areas of memory and attention.
The findings of this study ‘are important for several reasons, especially since Alzheimer’s can be expensive to diagnose,’ said medicalnewstoday.com.
‘If further studies indicate that urinary formic acid can detect cognitive decline, it may prove to be an accessible, affordable test.’
In addition, US Pegasus Senior Living vice president Dr Sandra Petersen said the study’s findings could be ‘enormous’ and emphasised: ‘Alzheimer’s disease changes start about 20-30 years before diagnosis, going generally undetected until significant damage has occurred.
‘We know early detection can lead to more treatment options and opportunities for planning future care for the sufferer.
‘A breakthrough in testing of this sort (non-invasive and inexpensive) available to the masses would be a definite game changer in the fight against Alzheimer’s Disease.’
