Experts believe a test that can predict the risk of contracting more than 60 different diseases from a single drop of blood could be a step closer.
Researchers say they are “very excited” by the findings, which indicate that thousands of proteins in a drop of blood can trigger many different diseases.
The study, published in Nature Medicine, opens up new possibilities for predicting a wide range of diseases, including rare diseases whose diagnosis can take months and years.
Professor Claudia Langenberg, from Queen Mary University of London, said: ‘Measuring a protein for a specific reason, such as troponin to diagnose a heart attack, is standard clinical practice.
Researchers say they are “very excited” by the findings, which indicate that thousands of proteins in a drop of blood can trigger many different diseases.
The test is reminiscent of one offered by Theranos scammer 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 prick of blood.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to identify new markers for detection and diagnosis from the thousands of circulating proteins that can now be measured in human blood.”
In the study, scientists used advanced techniques to identify a signature of between five and 20 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 in the UK.
According to the findings, protein signatures can predict the onset of 67 diseases, including blood and bone marrow cancers, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, motor neuron disease and dilated cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle.
The researchers said proteomic studies, or protein analysis, could help identify risk factors for even more diseases.
Dr Julia Carrasco Zanini Sánchez said: ‘We are very excited about the opportunities our protein signatures may have for early detection and ultimately better prognosis for many diseases, including serious conditions.
“We identified 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 prediction based on blood cell counts, cholesterol, kidney function and diabetes tests did not perform as well as protein prediction models in most examples.
The evidence is reminiscent of that offered by Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes.
He claimed to have developed a device that could perform more than 240 tests, from cholesterol levels to complex genetic analyses, with just a pinprick of blood.
This was later found to be untrue. Holmes, 40, was sent to prison in May 2023 for defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
It is expected to be released in 2032.