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<\/div>Biomarkers in blood can point towards certain conditions<\/p>\n
Evgeniy Salov\/Alamy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) could one day be diagnosed with a blood<\/a> test, after researchers have linked eight genetic markers to the condition.<\/p>\n People with ALS \u2013 the most common form of motor neuron disease \u2013 experience problems with walking, speaking, swallowing and breathing, which get worse over time and are eventually fatal. There is no cure, but treatments such as physiotherapy can reduce the impact of these symptoms.<\/p>\n Doctors generally diagnose ALS using symptom assessments, tests that measure the electrical activity of nerves and brain scans. There is a lack of awareness around ALS and doctors need to track how someone\u2019s symptoms unfold over time before making a diagnosis, which delays treatment, says Sandra Banack<\/a> at the research organisation Brain Chemistry Labs in Wyoming.<\/p>\n To help diagnose the condition sooner, Banack and her colleagues have been analysing blood samples from small groups of people with and without ALS. This led them to eight genetic markers that seem to exist at different levels in the two groups.<\/p>\n To confirm this, the team has now looked at the blood samples of 119 people with ALS, taken from a biobank called the National ALS Biorepository, and 150 people without the condition, finding that the same eight markers still differ between these groups. The markers have been linked to neuron survival, brain inflammation, memory<\/a> and learning, says Banack.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Next, the researchers trained a machine learning model to distinguish between those with and without ALS, based on the marker levels of 214 of the participants. They then put it to the test on the remaining 55 participants, finding that it correctly identified 96 per cent of ALS cases and 97 per cent of people without the condition.<\/p>\n