A ten-protein plasma panel identifies ALS at 98.3% balanced accuracy in independent validation

Emory researchers first profiled plasma from 632 people with ALS and 160 healthy controls, narrowed the candidates to ten proteins and then validated the model in 144 ALS cases and 37 controls. It reached 98.3% balanced accuracy and an AUC of 0.992, driven by proteomic signals rather than age, sex or neurofilament light alone. A future blood screen could help general clinicians refer suspected cases to specialists sooner. The controls were mainly healthy people, so the panel has not yet been fully tested against look-alike disorders such as myasthenia gravis or inclusion-body myositis and is not an orderable clinical diagnosis.