INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and a certain type of dementia, impact thousands of people each year.

Although they may seem like two totally different diseases, both are caused by damage of nerve cells and both are diagnosed after symptoms appear.

A new discovery made at Johns Hopkins may be life-saving for people who may be at risk of developing ALS, as well as frontotemporal dementia, or FTD.

Researchers know that a protein in the brain called TPD43 becomes corrupted in both ALS and FTD

“They can’t produce a normal protein, and therefore your cell lacks all these essential protein for the survival of the neuron,” Dr. Philip Wong, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins, said.

Until now, researchers didn’t know if the damage happened before symptoms appear or after. “We’ve only had the ability to look at these in post-mortem tissues after patients had passed away,” Wong said.

Neuroscientist Katie Irwin developed a blood test that identifies a specific protein linked to TPD43 dysfunction. This protein could serve as a valuable biomarker for detecting ALS and FTD before symptoms appear.

“We were able to find elevated levels of this protein, really suggesting that this is a mechanism that occurs early on,” Wong said.

By identifying these diseases earlier, doctors may be able to intervene with treatments sooner.

This story was created from a script aired on WISH-TV. Health Spotlight is presented by Community Health Network.