title: Early stages of probable Alzheimer disease are associated with changes in platelet amyloid precursor protein forms.
abstract: Previous findings demonstrated an altered pattern of amyloid precursor protein (APP) forms in platelets of Alzheimer disease (AD) patients, compared both with healthy control subjects or patients with non-Alzheimer-type dementia. The present study aims to evaluate whether platelet APP form ratio (APPr) is altered in patients with early stage AD. We selected 40 patients with early stage AD and 40 age-matched healthy controls. Compared with controls (mean+/-SD=0.91+/-0.3), mean APPr was decreased in AD (mean+/-SD=0.46+/-0.26, p<0.0001). Sixteen very mild AD patients (clinical dementia rating=0.5), identified among the AD group, showed a significant decrease of APPr values (mean+/-SD=0.50+/-0.3, p<0.0001). These findings indicate that alteration of APP processing in platelets is an early event and suggest that this assay might be of diagnostic value in differentiating mild AD from normal ageing.
authors.affiliation: Clinica Neurologica, Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Chirurgiche, Università degli Studi di Brescia, Piazza Ospedale 1, Italy.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Borroni
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Colciaghi
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Corsini
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akkawi
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rozzini
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Del Zotto
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Talarico
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cattabeni
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Lenzi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Luca
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Padovani
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism; D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor / Q000097:blood* / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001792:Blood Platelets / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor; D015415:Biomarkers