title: CSF biomarkers in neurodegenerative and vascular dementias.
abstract: Neurodegenerative diseases with abnormal protein aggregates such as Alzheimer's disease, tauopathies, synucleinopathies, and prionopathies, together with vascular encephalopathies, are cause of cognitive impairment and dementia. Identification of reliable biomarkers in biological fluids, particularly in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), is of extreme importance in optimizing the precise early clinical diagnosis of distinct entities and predicting the outcome in particular settings. In addition, the study of CSF biomarkers is useful to identify and monitor the underlying pathological processes developing in the central nervous system of affected individuals. Evidence suggests that levels of key CSF molecules correlate, in some circumstances, with prediction, disease progression, and severity of cognitive decline. Correlation of CSF markers and underlying pathological molecular substrates in brain is an exciting field for further study. However, while some dementias such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have accurate CSF biomarkers, other disease types such as dementia with Lewy bodies, vascular dementia, and frontotemporal dementia lack reliable biomarkers for their specific clinical diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Göttingen, Germany. Electronic address: franc.llorens@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Franc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Llorens
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmitz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuropathology, Bellvitge University Hospital, University of Barcelona, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain; Network Center for Biomedical Research of Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), Institute Carlos III, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain.
authors.forename: Isidro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ferrer
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Inga
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zerr
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D003704:Dementia / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D006801:Humans; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Biomarkers; Cerebrospinal fluid; Dementia with Lewy bodies; Frontotemporal dementia; Neurodegenerative dementias; Parkinson’s disease; Prionopathies; Tauopathies; Vascular dementia