Blood-Based Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease: Challenging but Feasible

Abstract

Blood-based biomarkers present a considerable challenge: technically, as blood is a complex tissue and conceptually, as blood lacks direct contact with brain. Nonetheless, increasing evidence suggests that there is a blood protein signature, and possibly a transcript signature, that might act to increase confidence in diagnosis, be used to predict progression in either disease or prodromal states, and that may also be used to monitor disease progression. Evidence for this optimism comes partly from candidate protein studies, including those suggesting that Amyloid-β measures might have value in prediction and those studies of inflammatory markers that consistently show change in Alzheimer's disease, and partly from true proteomics studies that are beginning to identify markers in blood that replicate across studies and populations.

KEYWORDS::

• Alzheimer's disease
• biomarkers
• blood
• dementia
• plasma
• transcriptomics

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Research in the authors’ laboratories is funded by the NIHR, through the specialist Biomedical Research centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, the MRC, Wellcome trust, Alzheimer's Research Trust, Alzheimer's Society and the John and Lucille van Geest Foundation. KCL has, through the authors, registered patent protection on plasma biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease. 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.

Additional information

Funding

Research in the authors’ laboratories is funded by the NIHR, through the specialist Biomedical Research centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, the MRC, Wellcome trust, Alzheimer's Research Trust, Alzheimer's Society and the John and Lucille van Geest Foundation. KCL has, through the authors, registered patent protection on plasma biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease. 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.