Biological markers in Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia occurring in human population. The disorder is characterized clinically by memory loss and histopathologically by the presence of neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques in patient's brain. Accuracy of the clinal diagnosis of AD is quite variable (-60 to 95 %), leaving a significant number of AD patients undiagnosed or falsely positively diagnosed. Therefore there is a requirement for biological markers, which would unambiguously discriminate living AD patients from other non-AD individuals. Until now a few diagnostic biomarkers for AD have been identified, which can be divided in two groups: protein markers and genetic markers. The most significant protein biomarkers are levels of tau proteins, ubiquitin and amyloid beta-peptides in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Among genetic AD markers, the most relevant are allelic variants of gene for apolipoprotein E and point mutations in genes coding for amyloid precursor protein and presenilin 1 and 2. Nevertheless, neither of recent biomarkers allow the ultimate AD diagnosis, because the disease is multifactorial and heterogenous. Identification of various subgroups of AD will help improvement in diagnoses and development of potent therapeutic drugs (Tab. 2, Fig. 2, Ref. 53).
Grundke-Iqbal
I
I
New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities, Staten Island, New York 10314, USA.
Rolkova
G
G
Konstekova
E
E
Iqbal
K
K
D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000032:analysis; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006801:Humans; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000032:analysis
D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D015415:Biomarkers; D005819:Genetic Markers; D016875:tau Proteins