OAN Staff Lillian Mann
6:00 PM – Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Recent breakthroughs have shown that a specific type of blood test can predict the risk and approximate timing of Alzheimer’s symptoms a decade or two before they actually begin.
Medical journal JAMA Network Open published a study that shows a simple blood test may be able to accurately determine if an individual is at risk of developing Alzheimer’s symptoms 10 to 20 years before the symptoms manifest.
Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive brain disorder that gradually erodes memory and thinking abilities, affects an estimated 7.4 million Americans, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The new blood test detailed in the study measures levels of a biomarker known as p-tau217.
The article, published on Tuesday this week, described how researchers pooled data from more than 2,600 cognitively healthy older adults who underwent the blood test, brain scans and cognitive assessments to test the biomarker theory at Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute in Boston, Massachusetts.
According to the findings, the results indicated that individuals with very high levels of this biomarker face an estimated 38% absolute risk of developing cognitive impairment within 5 years, which surges to 78% over a 10-year period.
Though the blood test has been granted federal clearance, the process remains too new to recommend to people without symptoms, the publication noted.
“Wait and get tested when you can potentially do something about it,” stressed Dr. Reisa Sperling of the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute, the study’s senior author. “At this point, it wouldn’t change what I would tell someone to do. I’d still tell them to eat well, sleep well, exercise a lot and stay engaged.”
Nonetheless, Sperling said the test could be available soon, as new therapies in clinical trials reportedly continue to be proven successful.
“This is a gradual process where amyloid and tau build up in the brain and this blood-based biomarker is telling you how far you are in that process,” she added.
“This is a critical step toward better understanding what p-tau217 can tell us about a person’s risk for cognitive impairment,” said lead author Dr. Rachel Buckley, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Mass General. “What really sets this work apart is that it estimates an individual’s level of risk for cognitive impairment.”
To confirm and refine these findings, future research will need to track more diverse populations over longer periods, HealthDayTV emphasized.
The research was published in JAMA and presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London.
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