Open AccessBlood‐based biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease
Author(s) -
Leuzy Antoine,
MattssonCarlgren Niklas,
Palmqvist Sebastian,
Janelidze Shorena,
Dage Jeffrey L,
Hansson Oskar
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
embo molecular medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.923
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1757-4684
pISSN - 1757-4676
DOI - 10.15252/emmm.202114408
Subject(s) - library science , university hospital , medicine , gerontology , family medicine , computer science
Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) represent a mounting public health challenge. As these diseases are difficult to diagnose clinically, biomarkers of underlying pathophysiology are playing an ever‐increasing role in research, clinical trials, and in the clinical work‐up of patients. Though cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and positron emission tomography (PET)‐based measures are available, their use is not widespread due to limitations, including high costs and perceived invasiveness. As a result of rapid advances in the development of ultra‐sensitive assays, the levels of pathological brain‐ and AD‐related proteins can now be measured in blood, with recent work showing promising results. Plasma P‐tau appears to be the best candidate marker during symptomatic AD (i.e., prodromal AD and AD dementia) and preclinical AD when combined with Aβ42/Aβ40. Though not AD‐specific, blood NfL appears promising for the detection of neurodegeneration and could potentially be used to detect the effects of disease‐modifying therapies. This review provides an overview of the progress achieved thus far using AD blood‐based biomarkers, highlighting key areas of application and unmet challenges.