Nearly 1 million people currently live with dementia, a number that is expected to increase to 1.4 million by 2040. The financial burden exceeds £35 billion per year, placing immense pressure on families and the healthcare system. This study aims to improve the early diagnosis of dementia, which is key to improving outcomes for patients and their loved ones.
Dementia begins in the brain years before symptoms appear. Current diagnostic methods, like spinal fluid testing or brain imaging, are expensive, invasive, or not widely available, meaning many people get diagnosed too late for treatments to help.
This research explores a simpler possibility: a nose-to-brain connection where cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), the protective fluid surrounding the brain, drains through the nasal lining. CSF carries biomarkers, which are molecules indicative of dementia. In preliminary studies, they found these biomarkers in the nasal lining and observed levels that increase with age.
With an ENT UK research grant, they are now recruiting patients for a pilot study. They’ll compare levels of dementia-related proteins in nasal tissue from people with mild dementia versus healthy individuals. If successful, this could lead to a simple nasal test used in ENT clinics as a fast, painless, and affordable method for detecting early-stage dementia.
This approach could reshape care for people living with dementia. Patients would receive a diagnosis earlier, allowing treatments or lifestyle interventions to be more effective and avoiding invasive tests. ENT clinicians could then provide timely advice and referrals without delays.
Enabling early diagnosis in a familiar clinic setting can reduce stress, speed up access to support, and bring healthcare closer to home. Ultimately, this could help thousands by detecting dementia sooner, making treatment more actionable, and easing the path toward better outcomes.