Swedish neuroscientists have developed a novel blood test that can spot the risk of Alzheimer`s disease 15 years before symptoms begin to appear among people over the age of 50. Alzheimer’s disease, a brain disorder that affects memory and thinking skills, is the most common type of dementia, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The test measures levels of a protein in the blood called phosphorylated tau (p-tau) -- a specific blood biomarker for Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology. Scan or spinal tap are the current methods to identify beta amyloid and tau build up in the brains of people with the disease. But these are not only inaccessible often but also expensive.