Biochemical Biomarkers in Alzheimer's Disease

In view of the growing prevalence of AD worldwide, there is an urgent need for the development of better diagnostic tools and more effective therapeutic interventions. Indeed, much work in this field has been done during last decades. As such, a major goal of current clinical research in AD is to improve early detection of disease and presymptomatic detection ofneuronal dysfunction, concurrently with the development of better toolsto assess disease progression in this group of...
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In view of the growing prevalence of AD worldwide, there is an urgent need for the development of better diagnostic tools and more effective therapeutic interventions. Indeed, much work in this field has been done during last decades. As such, a major goal of current clinical research in AD is to improve early detection of disease and presymptomatic detection ofneuronal dysfunction, concurrently with the development of better toolsto assess disease progression in this group of disorders. All these putativecorrelates are commonly referred to as AD-related biomarkers. The idealbiomarker should be easy to quantify and measure, reproducible, notsubject to wide variation in the general population and unaffected by comorbidfactors. For evaluation of therapies, a biomarker needs to changelinearly with disease progression and closely correlate with establishedclinico-pathological parameters of the disease.There is growing evidence that the use of biomarkers will increase ourability to better indentify the underlying biology of AD, especially in its earlystages. These biomarkers will improve the detection of the patients suitablefor research studies and drug trials, and they will contribute to a bettermanagement of the disease in the clinical practice. Indeed, much work inthis field has been done during last decades. The vast number of importantapplications, combined with the untamed diversity of already identifiedbiomarkers, show that there is a pressing need to structure the researchmade on AD biomarkers into a solid, comprehensive and easy to use tool tode deployed in clinical settings.To date there are few publications compiling results on this topic. That is whywhen I was asked to address this task I accepted inmediately. I am happyto present you a bundle of the best articles published about biomarkers forAlzheimer's disease in recent times.