title: En route to early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease--are we there yet?
abstract: As therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease (AD) become available, it will become increasingly important to develop accurate and reliable tools for its early diagnosis. A recent paper by Georganopoulou et al. suggests that nanobiotechnology could help to overcome the limitations with the current diagnostic methods. The paper introduces a nanoparticle-based assay using antibodies that are specific for amyloid beta-protein (Abeta) oligomers with sub-femtomolar sensitivity. This assay appears to be more specific for AD than previous ELISA-based work and, if specificity of the assay for Abeta oligomers can be established, the method developed might provide a sensitive, reliable diagnostic tool for AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Erica A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Fradinger
authors.forename: Gal
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bitan
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008024:Ligands; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D015415:Biomarkers; D008024:Ligands; D004247:DNA