title: Biomarkers for evaluation of clinical efficacy of multipotential neuroprotective drugs for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
abstract: During the last century, the world population has shown a staggering increase in its proportion of elderly members and thus neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD), respectively, are becoming an increasing burden on society. Among the diverse, significant challenges facing clinicians, is the improvement of diagnostic measures to detect early and subtle symptoms, a phase in which prevention efforts might be expected to have their greatest impact and provide a measure of disease progression that can be evaluated during the course of drug treatment. At present, clinical diagnosis of AD and PD is based on a constellation of symptoms and manifestations, although the disease originated several years earlier. Given the multiple etiological nature of AD and PD, it is reasonable to assume that the initial causative pathobiological processes may differ between the affected individuals. Therefore, the availability of biological markers or biomarkers will help not only early disease diagnosis, but also delineate the pathological mechanisms more definitively and reliably than the traditional cognitive and neurological phenotypes. In the current article, we review the literature on biochemical, genetic, and neuroimaging biomarkers and discuss their predictive value as indicative for disease vulnerability to detect individuals at risk for PD and AD, and to determine the clinical efficacy of novel, disease-modifying (neuroprotective) strategies.
authors.affiliation: Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Department of Neurology, Memory Clinic, Tel-Aviv 64239, Israel.
authors.forename: Ilan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Halperin
authors.forename: Micaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morelli
authors.forename: Amos D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Korczyn
authors.forename: Moussa B H
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Youdim
authors.forename: Silvia A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Mandel
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D000978:Antiparkinson Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
chemical_list: D000978:Antiparkinson Agents; D015415:Biomarkers; D005819:Genetic Markers; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents