Blood test for brain diseases

A Canadian neuroscientist claimed on Monday to have developed the world's first simple blood test to detect brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and says it may be available within two to five years.

The test, which looks for clumps of "misfolded" proteins that underlie such diseases, will enable a "definitive diagnosis" of such illnesses, which is not currently possible, researcher Neil Cashman told AFP.

"If we had something as of the first month of Alzheimer's disease symptoms, it's likely that Aricept and similar medicines would have a greater effect on the progression of the disease" - Neil Cashman, researcher