Developing a simple nasal test for dementia

Dementia can form for up to 20 years before any symptoms present themselves. This means that by the time it is diagnosed the brain is so damaged that very little can be done.

It is widely understood that dementia is caused by a build-up of the harmful protein amyloid in the brain. Initial research suggests that these proteins can be identified in the nose, which could lead to a breakthrough in diagnosis. Our dementia team and the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialists at University Hospital Southampton are collaborating to develop a simple nasal swab test for much earlier detection of the disease.

A skilled postdoctoral researcher would enable us to move forward with this research at pace. They will seek to characterise the pathway of drainage from the brain to the nose and analyse how biomarkers change in younger and older patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Next we will engage with an engineer to design a suitable device for collecting the sample in the nose.

With your help, an effective, painless, quick and cheap test for dementia could be up and running in ENT clinics in the next five to ten years. Imagine the difference we could make by diagnosing dementia earlier.

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We are all very aware of how important it is to detect cancer at an early stage, and there are so many ways of testing and screening. We desperately need to be able to detect dementia earlier for the exact same reasons – treatment is so very much more effective if you catch the disease early.”

Professor Roxana Carare
Professor of Neuroscience