Dementia affects over 57 million people worldwide, a number expected to nearly double in the next 20 years. This permanent loss of cognitive abilities affects daily function and can be caused by multiple brain pathologies, including well-known ones like Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Right now, biomarkers permit diagnosis of AD, but not rarer pathologies like frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) or its subtypes.

Now, findings published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia could help physicians better diagnose dementia patients with the correct pathology, improving research and drug development.

“In this study, we found elevated concentrations of a biomarker that correlates with FTLD-TDP disease severity,” said co-senior author David R. Walt, Ph.D., of the Mass General Brigham Department of Pathology. Walt is also a core faculty member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, associate member at the Broad Institute, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor.