Neurochemical dementia diagnostics in Alzheimer’s disease: where are we now and where are we going?

Abstract

Neurochemical dementia diagnostics (NDD) is a routine laboratory tool used in the diagnostic process for patients with neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, two groups of biomarkers analyzed in the cerebrospinal fluid are considered – namely amyloid-β peptides and Tau proteins – along with the hyperphosphorylated forms of the latter (pTau). Current directions in the development of NDD include the following: search for novel biomarkers with improved analytical or diagnostic performance; optimization of the analysis of the biomarkers already available (e.g., by improved quality control and interlaboratory comparison of results); applications of novel technologies enabling better management of patient samples; and search for biomarkers in the blood. This article presents the state-of-the-art in the field of cerebrospinal fluid-based NDD, and also summarizes some of the hypotheses of how the future development of NDD tools might look.

Keywords::

• Alzheimer’s disease
• amyloid-β
• cerebrospinal fluid
• clinical neurochemistry
• Tau

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the team of technicians at the Laboratory for Clinical Neurochemistry and Neurochemical Dementia Diagnostics of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen (M Deckert, A Gürtler, H Köstner, A Noureddine, C Schödel, U Schulz and J Waedt) for all the years of performing the laboratory analyses with the highest quality and engagement.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Piotr Lewczuk is a consultant of Innogenetics (Ghent, Belgium). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.