Experts believe a test that can predict your risk of more than 60 different diseases based on a single drop of blood is one step closer.
Researchers say they are “extremely excited” by the findings, which suggest that thousands of proteins in a drop of blood could trigger the development of many different conditions.
The research, published in Nature Medicine, opens up new possibilities for predicting a wide range of diseases, including rare conditions that can take months or years to diagnose.
Professor Claudia Langenberg, from Queen Mary University of London, said: ‘Measuring one protein for a specific reason, such as troponin to diagnose a heart attack, is standard clinical practice.
Researchers say they are “extremely excited” by the findings, which suggest that thousands of proteins in a drop of blood could be the start of many different diseases.
The test is reminiscent of Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, who claimed to have developed a device that could perform more than 240 tests, from cholesterol levels to complex genetic analyses, with just a single prick of blood.
“We are incredibly excited about the potential to identify new markers for screening and diagnosis from the thousands of proteins circulating in human blood that are now measurable.”
In the study, scientists used advanced techniques to locate a signature of between five and twenty of the most important proteins – found in blood plasma – for the prediction of 67 different diseases.
They studied data from more than 40,000 randomly selected people from the United Kingdom.
According to the findings, protein signatures can predict the development of 67 diseases, including blood and bone marrow cancers, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, motor neuron disease and dilated cardiomyopathy – a heart muscle disease.
According to the researchers, protemic studies, or analyses of proteins, could help identify risk factors for even more diseases.
Dr Julia Carrasco Zanini Sanchez said: ‘We are extremely excited about the potential our protein signatures could offer for earlier detection and ultimately improved prognosis for many diseases, including serious conditions.
“We have identified so many promising examples. The next step is to select high-priority diseases and evaluate their proteomic prediction in a clinical setting.”
The researchers found that models based on protein prediction were better than models based on clinically recorded information.
The researchers found that predictions based on blood cell counts, cholesterol, kidney function, and diabetes tests underperformed the protein prediction models for most samples.
The test is reminiscent of that of Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes.
She claimed to have developed a device that could perform more than 240 tests from just one blood sample, ranging from cholesterol levels to complex genetic analyses.
This later turned out not to be true. Holmes, 40, was sent to prison in May 2023 for defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.
She is expected to be released in 2032.