Can a blood test for DNA predict Alzheimer’s disease and frailty? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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You may have heard the term ‘liquid biopsy.’ Most often referring to cancer detection, such technology aims to find materials circulating in the blood that give clues to a tumor’s presence. Now such a strategy is being used to look at a couple of sources of DNA found in the blood to assess one’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease and frailty. Geriatrics expert Peter Abadir at Johns Hopkins explains.

Abadir: We were, in using this liquid biopsy to identify changes in the overall loss of cells in the body. The more cells that die the more nuclear material you are releasing into the circulation and the more mitochondrial material that you are releasing into the circulation. So our 8 year study focused on understanding the relationship between those circulating cell free DNA fragments and aging related conditions such as dementia and frailty.  :31

Abadir says there is a relationship between increased amounts of DNA and increased risk. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.