The world’s largest study into key substances in the bloodstream has paved the way for a swathe of pinprick tests that can detect early signs of disease more than a decade before symptoms appear, researchers say.Work on the tests follows the completion of a project by the UK Biobank to measure the levels of nearly 250 different proteins, sugars, fats and other compounds in blood collected from half a million volunteers.
The complex molecular profiles give a detailed snapshot of each person’s physiology, and when combined with medical records and death registries, allow scientists to predict the risk of a host of diseases from diabetes and heart disease to cancer and dementia.
“It’s going to be a real gamechanger for our work,” saeid Dr Joy Edwards-Hicks at the university of Edinburgh, who studies how changes in blood metabolites affect the immune system. More predictive tests will shift the emphasis in healthcare towards preventing diseases rather than treating them.
“it fits with the model of prevention that we are moving towards, to be able to send off a little pinprick blood sample and get an idea of your health,” she added. “If we have early predictors of disease, we can tell someone in their 40s that their biomarkers are not looking good for their age and advise on changes they could make.”
The UK Biobank worked with Nightingale Health to measure hundreds of key metabolites in the blood,including sugars,amino acids,fats,precursors for hormones and waste products such as urea. The molecules are produced or used when the body breaks down food, drink and medicines, and when organs use energy, make repairs and build fresh tissues for growth.
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Changes in people’s metabolic profiles reflect and drive disease.When organs stop working properly, the profile will shift. A diseased liver can drive up ammonia. A damaged kidney can increase urea and creatine. Muscle damage can be seen in raised lactate.In cancer, glucose uptake rises.
The picture scientists glean from metabolic profiles is often more extensive than other tests allow. This is because metabolites are influenced not only by a person’s genetics, but where they live and how they live: diet, e
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