Abstract
The common approach of the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is made with an analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid or the study of retinal fundus and the plaques formation through optical corneal tomography (OCT), or more simply with a fundus camera. Tears analysis is widely discussed in literature as an essential method to describe molecular and biochemical alterations in different diseases. The aim of our study was the identification with immunocytochemistry of Amyloid Beta-42 in tears from patients with or without familiarity for Alzheimer Disease, in order to make the diagnosis earlier and more accessible compared to other invasive methods. Our study was performed on tears from three phenotypically healthy subjects: two of them were Caucasian with Alzheimer familiarity (48 and 55 years old) and the other one was Asian without Alzheimer familiarity (45 years old) and affected by an adenoviral keratoconjunctivitis at the moment of withdrawal. Tear samples were collected from eye fornix and were examinated by immunocytochemistry (ICC) assay using anti-Amyloid Beta X-42 antibody. Two out of three tears samples showed positive Amyloid Beta-42. Considering that our patients were phenotypically healthy, the identification of Amyloid Beta-42 by ICC could be a candidable method to make the diagnosis of the disease earlier and more accessible and available then other current and invasive methods and it could be a candidate for a screening method too.
Highlights
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative pathology of the central nervous system.The diagnosis is currently performed according to the classical methods through bioptic withdrawal of brain tissue or withdrawal of cerebrospinal liquid, subjecting the patients to significative physical stress and limiting the execution of the practice which cannot be extended to diagnostic screening
We focused our attention on tears analysis [3], to detect the presence of Amyloid Beta-42 in order to hypothesize a less invasive method and more rapid diagnosis of Alzheimer disease
Native beta-amyloid is a transmembrane protein is derived by the proteolytic processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP), resulting in a peptide predominantly 40 or 42 amino acids in length, with a short cytoplasmic domain that undergoes proteolytic clevage by secretase on its N-terminal intraluminal domain; clevated protein found in the extracellular fluid and in tears [4]
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative pathology of the central nervous system.The diagnosis is currently performed according to the classical methods through bioptic withdrawal of brain tissue or withdrawal of cerebrospinal liquid, subjecting the patients to significative physical stress and limiting the execution of the practice which cannot be extended to diagnostic screening. Human tears represent an exceptional biomaterial rich in information regarding the health status of eyes and, more generally, of whole-body functionality This is mainly due to the presence in tears of a large variety of organic components including proteins, lipids, metabolites, nucleic acids, and electrolytes, whose concentrations can be altered in pathologies of the whole body too [1,2]. We focused our attention on tears analysis [3], to detect the presence of Amyloid Beta-42 in order to hypothesize a less invasive method and more rapid diagnosis of Alzheimer disease. The eyes are a good indicator for the study of AD and its progression In this context, the detection of Amyloid Beta-42 in tears could be a useful method for an early and less invasive diagnosis of AD [10,11]
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