All articles tagged with #biomarker
Researchers analyzing six large cohorts found that higher blood levels of the protein GDF15 in people under 55 predict future dementia, especially vascular dementia, and Mendelian randomization suggests GDF15 may drive risk via metabolic and inflammatory pathways; brain and CSF data show related changes, indicating potential for early screening and a better understanding of disease mechanisms.
An international analysis of 11 long-term studies including over 26,000 men found that very low testosterone levels are associated with a higher risk of cancer diagnosis and cancer death, particularly when testosterone falls below about 7.3–8.6 nmol/L; the study does not prove causation and does not advocate testosterone supplementation, but suggests testosterone could be a biomarker for overall health, with prostate cancer not showing a clear link in these data.
A Swedish deep-learning model trained on hundreds of thousands of ECGs linked to death data identifies a 2.2% high-risk group with a 7.0% annual Sudden Cardiac Death rate, most of whom would not be flagged by reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF); external validation in the US and Taiwan shows the model generalizes to predict arrhythmic events; a generative model visualizes a concrete ECG biomarker and implicates conduction changes related to fibrosis; these findings point to a sizable, previously unrecognized population that could potentially benefit from defibrillators and warrant randomized trials.
Vitamin B12 is essential for DNA repair, nerve function, and blood cell health, but very high levels may signal underlying illness rather than provide cancer protection. While deficiency is a real risk, long-term high-dose B12 supplements have not shown clear cancer-preventive benefits, and elevated B12 in cancer patients is often an epiphenomenon caused by liver release or B12-binding proteins. High B12 could serve as a cancer marker in some cases, especially for colon or oral cancers, but for most people a balanced diet suffices and megadoses should only be taken under medical advice, with emphasis on overall healthy habits and routine screenings.
A long-term study of cognitively healthy adults found that plasma pTau217 levels forecast early Alzheimer’s pathology and future cognitive decline, often rising years before amyloid PET scans become positive, suggesting blood tests could enable earlier risk detection and screening for prevention trials.
A long-term study of 2,766 cognitively healthy women found higher blood levels of p-tau217 predict an increased risk of developing dementia or mild cognitive impairment over up to 25 years, suggesting a blood test could help identify those at greatest risk years before symptoms, though it is not deterministic and results vary by race, hormone therapy use, and age; more research is needed before public screening.
A UC San Diego–led study analyzed archived blood samples from the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study and found that higher levels of the brain protein p-tau217 in cognitively healthy women predicted dementia or mild cognitive impairment up to 25 years later. Published in JAMA Network Open, the finding suggests a simple blood test could identify future dementia risk long before symptoms, enabling earlier lifestyle interventions and more targeted trial recruitment. The study involved only women, with ongoing work to understand modifiable risk factors and whether results apply to men.
A UCSD-led study of 2,766 women in the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study found that higher plasma levels of the brain protein p-tau217 predict future dementia risk in women aged 65–79 up to 25 years before symptoms, with risk variations linked to hormone therapy use and genetic factors.
A UC San Diego study of over 2,500 women found that higher blood levels of the biomarker p-tau217 can predict future dementia risk up to 25 years before symptoms, with stronger links in women over 70, those with Alzheimer’s genetic risk, or on estrogen-progestin therapy; while promising, more studies are needed and it isn’t yet ready for routine clinical use, but could guide prevention trials.
A Nature Medicine study describes a blood test that detects an abnormal form of tau in the blood, which may serve as a molecular clock to predict not only if someone will develop Alzheimer’s but also when symptoms could start. If validated in larger trials, it could enable earlier interventions and streamline clinical testing for therapies, though experts caution that it’s not yet recommended for cognitively unimpaired individuals to use this biomarker outside of research.
The piece explores the idea that routine semen analysis could serve as a broad biomarker for men’s health—potentially a “new Pap smear” that flags risks for metabolic, cardiovascular, and cancer conditions. Startups are offering mail-in and at-home testing to tap a growing market, while medical experts caution that there is insufficient evidence that broad semen screening improves health outcomes, and warn of logistical, ethical, and equity concerns and possible overdiagnosis.
The FDA rejected Disc Medicine's bitopertin for porphyria, citing uncertainties that the biomarker used as the efficacy endpoint may not translate to real patient benefit, marking the first setback for a drug in Commissioner Makary's fast-track review program and sending Disc's shares lower.
The FDA has rejected Regenxbio’s RGX-121 gene therapy for mucopolysaccharidosis type II (Hunter syndrome), citing concerns about the surrogate cerebrospinal fluid biomarker used to predict longer-term cognitive benefit and casting doubt on the accelerated-approval pathway.
University of Geneva researchers find that neutrophils recruited to tumors are reprogrammed to produce the chemokine CCL3, which promotes tumor growth. This shift helps explain why some cancers become more aggressive and points to CCL3 activity in neutrophils as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target. The team used genetic tools to selectively suppress CCL3 in neutrophils and reanalyzed multiple studies to confirm the link.
A study with 31 participants under propofol anesthesia identifies a distinctive brain-wave pattern and decreasing inter-regional connectivity—especially between the parietal cortex and thalamus and between parietal and occipital areas—that mark loss of consciousness, suggesting an actionable biomarker to refine dosing, though findings are limited to one anesthetic and rely on new methods to infer whole-brain signals from scalp data.