Abstract

BackgroundSoluble amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomers are the major toxic substances associated with the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The ability to measure Aβ oligomer levels in the blood would provide simple and minimally invasive tools for AD diagnostics. In the present study, the recently developed Multimer Detection System (MDS) for AD, a new enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for measuring Aβ oligomers selectively, was used to detect Aβ oligomers in the plasma of patients with AD and healthy control individuals.MethodsTwenty-four patients with AD and 37 cognitively normal control individuals underwent extensive clinical evaluations as follows: blood sampling; detailed neuropsychological tests; brain magnetic resonance imaging; cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) measurement of Aβ42, phosphorylated tau protein (pTau), and total tau protein (tTau); and 11C-Pittsburgh compound B (PIB) positron emission tomography. Pearson’s correlation analyses between the estimations of Aβ oligomer levels by MDS and other conventional AD biomarkers (CSF Aβ42, pTau, and tTau, as well as PIB standardized uptake value ratio [PIB SUVR]) were conducted. ROC analyses were used to compare the diagnostic performance of each biomarker.ResultsThe plasma levels of Aβ oligomers by MDS were higher in patients with AD than in normal control individuals, and they correlated well with conventional AD biomarkers (levels of Aβ oligomers by MDS vs. CSF Aβ42, r = −0.443; PIB SUVR, r = 0.430; CSF pTau, r = 0.530; CSF tTau, r = 0.604). The sensitivity and specificity of detecting plasma Aβ oligomers by MDS for differentiating AD from the normal controls were 78.3% and 86.5%, respectively. The AUC for plasma Aβ oligomers by MDS was 0.844, which was not significantly different from the AUC of other biomarkers (p = 0.250).ConclusionsPlasma levels of Aβ oligomers could be assessed using MDS, which might be a simple, noninvasive, and accessible assay for evaluating brain amyloid deposition related to AD pathology.

Highlights

  • Soluble amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomers are the major toxic substances associated with the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD)

  • The results we present suggest the possibility of using Multimer Detection System (MDS) for measuring plasma Aβ oligomer levels as a simple bloodbased biomarker test for making the AD diagnosis

  • Standardized uptake value ratio, pTau Phosphorylated tau protein, total tau protein (tTau) Total tau protein aTwenty-four patients with AD and 29 normal control subjects (NC) were evaluated for the presence of the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) ε4 allele bTwenty-three patients with AD and 28 NC were assessed by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and Pittsburgh compound B (PIB)

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Soluble amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomers are the major toxic substances associated with the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The ability to measure Aβ oligomer levels in the blood would provide simple and minimally invasive tools for AD diagnostics. Prominent amyloid biomarkers of AD are amyloid-β 1–42 (Aβ42) levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) imaging [1]. These methods have been used widely in the clinical setting; they have several disadvantages, such as cost, invasiveness, and interlaboratory variability. The reliable measurement of Aβ oligomers in blood samples would present a noninvasive, inexpensive, and accessible method for making the AD diagnosis

Objectives
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call