Neurodegeneration

Alzheimers Diagnostics

Alzheimer's disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease leading to dementia, can be characterized by 3 hallmarks, which are formation of Amyloid-beta plaques, TAU fibrils and loss of neurons and synapses, leading to a significant brain volume reduction. The first 2 hallmarks lead to the fact that measuring these proteins in CSF is a valuable tool to support the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

To assess Amyloid-beta pathology in AD more recent clinical research has shown that the determination of the Amyloid-beta ratio of Amyloid-beta (1-42)/Amyloid-beta (1-40) significantly improves the diagnostic value towards AD (Figure 1). Furthermore as fibril formation of TAU proteins is characterized by hyperphosphorylation, the determination of either phosphoTAU or the non-phosphorylated TAU fraction confirms the TAU pathology in AD.

The Amyloid-beta ratio of Amyloid-beta (1-42) to Amyloid-beta (1-40) significantly improves the accuracy of concordant samples in comparison to PiB from 74.9% to 89.4% (Lewczuk et al. J Alzheimers Dis. 2017;55(2):813-822.)

Schematic illustration of neurofilament subunits

Research of axonal destruction

Neurofilaments are the backbone of the neuronal cytoskeleton. Neurofilament light is found to be elevated in neurodegenerative disorders that are associated with the destruction of white matter (substantia alba). Typically these are:

• Parkinson's disease (PD)
• Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)