Predictive Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease Using State-of-the-Art Brain Imaging Techniques

Human life expectancy is increasing steadily as a result of the significant advances made in scientific and medical research, as well as technological and economic development. With the resulting substantial increase in the aging population, there has been a concurrent increase in age-related brain disorders. Of these, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most common brain disorders, with an estimated thirty-five million people affected worldwide. AD has become a silent tsunami in the aging population and the resulting economic burden on the healthcare system runs into billions of dollars. The last decade has seen milestone developments in AD research that have been pivotal in furthering our understanding of the disease’s pathobiological-mechanism. However, AD diagnosis continues to primarily rely on various neuropsychological tests, which can detect the disease only after the manifestation of clinical symptoms [1]. There is an urgent need for the development of reliable diagnostic biomarkers that can detect AD pathology at an incipient stage. Such biomarkers will not only aid in the early detection of AD, but will also pave the way to effective clinical trials. The biomarkers presently used for AD are either genetic, such as apolipoprotein E4; cerebrospinal fluid-derived, such as amyloidand tau; or brain pathology-linked