Scientists at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI) are developing a painless skin test for Alzheimer's disease (AD) upon their isolation of a substance in skin cells that may provide doctors with a quick and accurate yes-or-no answer when they suspect a patient is showing early signs of the disease.

The BRNI researchers, in an article entitled: "An Internally Controlled Peripheral Biomarker for Alzheimer's Disease: Erk1 and Erk2 Responses to the inflammatory Signal Bradykinin" which appeared in last week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), described a biomarker that can accurately distinguish between Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia during the first one to two years of the disease's progression.

When tested with human skin cells from a tissue bank, the BRNI biomarker showed high accuracy which could also be used on blood samples.

"When it begins, Alzheimer's disease is often difficult to distinguish from other dementias or mild cognitive impairment," says Daniel L. Alkon, M.D., scientific director of BRNI and coauthor of the study with Tapan K.Khan, Ph.D., assistant professor.

"Potential treatments of Alzheimer's, however, are likely to have their greatest efficacy before the devastating and widespread impairment of brain function that inevitably develops after four or more years."

When finally developed, this biomarker skin test could be performed easily by a nurse or medical technician in a doctor's office or outpatient clinic. Just the sound of it is truly promising.

Read the full BNRI press release or the PNAS article.