A QUICK and cheap test that’s already used to check sports players for concussion could double as a means of spotting whether someone will get Alzheimer’s disease, years before the first symptoms of dementia appear. It may help companies develop drugs to prevent the disease.
At the moment there is no straightforward way to detect the very earliest stages of Alzheimer’s. And without such a test, it’s hard to discover whether a drug can delay the onset of the disease, rather than just relieve the symptoms. “By the time we give drugs nowadays, people need carers,” says neurologist David Darby…
