Researchers from Satoris and other centers from United States and Europe have developed a blood test able to predict the Alzheimer’s disease two to six years ahead of its early stage.

Researchers published the study and its results on Sunday in the Journal Nature Medicine.

They discovered that changes in 18 proteins found in the blood cells could predict whether a person would develop Alzheimer’s disease with 90 percent accuracy.

Dr. Tony Wyss-Coray, an associate professor of neurology at Stanford University School of Medicine said the technology offers the possibility to 'listen' to ‘the chatter of cells communicating with each other’. The abnormality of this communication is the indicator of an early stage of Alzheimer’s disease.

The international team of researchers studied 259 blood samples from people with early and late stages of Alzheimer’s and from people with no symptoms at all.

They analyzed the blood proteins that are chemical messengers between blood cells, brain cells and the immune system cells. They found that the making of new blood cells and systems used in immune function were suppressed in the Alzheimer’s patients.

This test discovery is of great importance given the fact that by the time usually the disease is diagnosed the patients’ brain is already severely damaged. The possibility of predicting the disease could help new research for developing a cure.

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disease that affects patients’ memory, reasoning, and the ability to communicate.

The disease is hard to detect. Currently, doctors who suspect a possible mental decline on a patient administer paper-and pencil tests or analyze the patient’s spinal fluid. They also exclude other potential causes of memory loss, such as stroke, tumors, and alcoholism.

World Health Organization says: “about 18 million people worldwide have the disease”.