A Simple Nose Swab Could Detect Alzheimer’s Years Before Symptoms Appear

Researchers at Duke Health used a soft nasal swab to collect smell-related nerve and immune cells for analysis.

The study of 22 participants tracked thousands of genes and found patterns that separated early or clinical Alzheimer’s from controls.

A combined gene score from nasal tissue distinguished Alzheimer’s cases from healthy individuals about 81% of the time.

Duke has filed a U.S. patent and the team is expanding the research to larger cohorts and treatment-monitoring studies.