Amyloid blood biomarker detects Alzheimer's disease

• Main Authors: Andreas Nabers, Laura Perna, Julia Lange, Ute Mons, Jonas Schartner, Jörn Güldenhaupt, Kai‐Uwe Saum, Shorena Janelidze, Bernd Holleczek, Dan Rujescu, Oskar Hansson, Klaus Gerwert, Hermann Brenner
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2018-05-01
• Series: EMBO Molecular Medicine
• Subjects: Alzheimer's disease diagnosis; amyloid‐β in blood plasma; BioFINDER; ESTHER; immuno‐infrared‐sensor
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.15252/emmm.201708763

Abstract Alzheimer's disease (AD) is currently incurable, but there is general agreement that a minimally invasive blood biomarker for screening in preclinical stages would be crucial for future therapy. Diagnostic tools for detection of AD are either invasive like cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers or expensive such as positron emission tomography (PET) scanning. Here, we determine the secondary structure change of amyloid‐β (Aβ) in human blood. This change used as blood amyloid biomarker indicates prodromal AD and correlates with CSF AD biomarkers and amyloid PET imaging in the cross‐sectional BioFINDER cohort. In a further population‐based longitudinal cohort (ESTHER), the blood biomarker detected AD several years before clinical diagnosis in baseline samples with a positive likelihood ratio of 7.9; that is, those who were diagnosed with AD over the years were 7.9 times more likely to test positive. This assay may open avenues for blood screening of early AD stages as a funnel for further more invasive and expensive tests.