Experts believe we may be a step closer to a test that can predict the risk of developing more than 60 diseases from just a drop of blood.
The researchers say they are “extremely excited” by the discovery, which shows that thousands of proteins in a single drop of blood can cause a range of diseases.
The study, published in Nature Medicine, opens up new possibilities for predicting a wide range of diseases, including rare conditions that can take months or even years to diagnose.
Professor Claudia Langenberg Queen Mary University London“It is standard clinical practice to measure one protein for a specific reason, such as measuring troponin to diagnose a heart attack.”
“We are excited about the opportunity to identify new markers for screening and diagnosis from the thousands of proteins that circulate in human blood and can now be measured.”
In this study, scientists used advanced techniques to identify signatures of 5 to 20 of the most important proteins found in plasma and predict 67 different diseases.
They studied data from over 40,000 randomly selected people in the UK.
The study showed that the protein signature could predict the development of 67 diseases, including blood and bone marrow cancers, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, motor neuron disease, and dilated cardiomyopathy (a heart muscle disease).
The researchers said proteomic studies, or the analysis of proteins, could help identify risk factors for even more diseases.
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“We are very excited that our protein signature may lead to earlier detection and ultimately improved prognosis of many diseases, including severe ones,” said Dr. Julia Carrasco Zanini Sánchez.
“We have identified many promising examples. Our next step is to select high-priority diseases and evaluate their proteomic predictions in clinical settings.”
The researchers found that models based on protein predictions outperformed models based on clinically recorded information.
The researchers found that predictions based on blood counts, cholesterol, kidney function, and diabetes tests did not perform as well as protein prediction models in most instances.
This test is Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes.
She claimed to have developed a device that could perform more than 240 tests, from cholesterol levels to complex genetic analyses, with just a single needle of blood.
This later turned out to be untrue: Holmes, 40, was sent to prison in May 2023 for defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
She is scheduled for release in 2032.
