Article by Gustav Ceder
On World Alzheimer’s Day, it’s time to celebrate the significant strides made in Alzheimer’s research. Henrik Zetterberg, Professor of Neurochemistry at University College London and University of Gothenburg, is arguably one of the world’s leading researchers on neurodegenerative diseases. In a candid interview, Professor Zetterberg emphasized the potential impact of combining proteomics methods with quantitative dried blood spot sampling and solutions for quantitative dried plasma sampling, highlighting the potential for large-scale studies that could democratize the field.
“I have been so jealous of the people doing genetic studies,” Zetterberg said. “These studies involve 100,000 individuals, and they look at genetic components and genetic risk for diseases. In the world of fluid biomarkers, we’ve been at a disadvantage because we often need special collection setups, centrifuges, freezers, and dry ice transport.” But with advancements in sampling technologies, all of that is about to change.
Commenting on quantitative dried blood spot and dried plasma sampling, Zetterberg said, “If you do a fingerprint test on yourself and put this blood on a collection device, preferably so that you get dried plasma-like material, then you can measure all of the important blood biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease,” Zetterberg explained. “If you use this with a multiplexed ultra-sensitive technique called NULISA, then you can actually do this in one single dried drop. These measures correlate extremely well with standard venous blood-based measurements.”
According to Zetterberg, these technologies hold immense promise, especially for research in rural or remote areas. “We think this will work at a broad scale, and the biomarkers seem to be stable in this environment at room temperature for at least six months,” he said. “So, we could now send out these cards to areas where there is no nearby laboratory and trust the postal service to get the samples to the lab.” This advancement could help democratize Alzheimer’s diagnostics by making it accessible across the globe.
Zetterberg also sees this moment as one to celebrate. “I think we should celebrate some success, actually, on this day,” he noted. “I’m thinking about the anti-amyloid antibodies that now seem to do something clinically meaningful for this disease. There are still a lot of struggles ahead, but it’s time to celebrate a little bit.”
Looking ahead, Zetterberg envisions a future where the molecular epidemiology of neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s, can be studied globally. “We can now theoretically do the global molecular epidemiology of neurodegenerative dementias in the near future with techniques like microsampling,” he said. This approach could allow for studies on a scale that matches those in genetics, offering new insights.
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