The study highlights the role of brain-derived nanoparticles in identifying the disease through minimally invasive testing.
Mount Sinai researchers have discovered blood RNA biomarkers that offer a promising minimally invasive approach for earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, according to findings published in Nature Communications.
Recent research has shown that brain-specific RNA biomarkers are present in circulating blood nanoparticles, including exosomes, extracellular vesicles (EVs), and extracellular vesicles and particles (EVPs).
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai developed a simple, efficient, and cost-effective method to isolate EVPs from blood and brain tissue. They measured RNA biomarkers in blood and brain tissue samples from people with Alzheimer’s disease and from controls to determine gene expression patterns and cellular origins. The researchers separated EVPs into three subpopulations: large EVs, small EVs, and small extracellular particles (EPs).
The researchers also identified small blood nanoparticles known as “SECmeres” that carried Alzheimer’s-related brain signals more clearly than standard EVs. These nanoparticles were enriched with brain-specific markers and may offer a minimally invasive approach for earlier diagnosis of the progressive neurodegenerative disease.
“In 2025, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared the first protein-based blood test for Alzheimer’s disease diagnoses, which measures the pTau217/beta-amyloid 1-42 ratio,” says Navneet Dogra, PhD, assistant professor of pathology, molecular and cell–based medicine, and member of the Icahn Genomics Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in a release. “Our study demonstrates that blood EVPs carry brain-specific RNA information that could be used for liquid biopsy approaches, pending validation in larger blinded clinical trials. We believe EVP-derived RNAs may reveal disease-related changes earlier in the disease process, before proteins or pathology become detectable.”
Dogra says the findings could have important implications for liquid biopsy technologies designed to detect neurodegeneration disorders, cancer, and other diseases through minimally invasive testing.
“We provide evidence that novel brain-derived nanoparticles, termed ‘SECmeres,’ may play a key role in neurodegenerative disease development and hold promise as a real-time, non-invasive diagnostic tool for the living human brain,” says Dogra in a release.
The findings support the development of RNA-based liquid-biopsy assays that may help advance earlier detection of the disease, which represents a major global health challenge due to its increasing prevalence and substantial economic burden.
“Alzheimer’s disease represents a major global health challenge due to its increasing prevalence, profound impact on patients and families, and substantial economic burden,” says Panos Roussos, MD, MS, PhD, professor of psychiatry, and genetics and genomic sciences, and director of the center for disease neurogenomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in a release. “Our findings support the development of RNA-based liquid-biopsy assays that may help advance earlier detection of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Photo caption: Several brain-derived extracellular vesicles and particles (EVPs) cross the blood-brain barrier and reach circulation. Mount Sinai researchers have identified brain-specific RNA biomarkers in blood, paving a way for early and easier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
Courtesy of Nature Communications
