ACS Chem Neurosci: New biomarkers could help scientists diagnose Alzheimer's disease as early as possible

Once, a definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease was only possible after a patient's death, but recent biomarker studies may hopefully help researchers develop novel imaging and spinal fluid testing techniques to study suspected patients alive, however, these tests can only monitor serious diseases and distinguish advanced Alzheimer's disease from related diseases; Recently, a research report entitled "Site-Specific Phospho-Tau Aggregation-Based Biomarker Discovery for AD Diagnosis and Differentiation" published in the international journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience, Scientists from Central University in North Carolina and other institutions have identified a new type of biomarker that may help clinicians diagnose Alzheimer's disease earlier, when patients may have transitioned to mild cognitive impairment (MCI
).

In their search for Alzheimer's disease biomarkers, some researchers have turned to subtle changes called tau, which may make tau more likely to clump, leading to neuronal loss and memory damage.
These two modifications, which mainly involve phosphorylation of tau protein at specific amino acid sites, lead to the production of two versions, p-tau181 and p-tau217, biomarkers that have also been shown to be effective in distinguishing Alzheimer's disease tissue from tissues from tissues in other neurodegenerative diseases
.

New biomarkers could help scientists diagnose Alzheimer's disease
as early as possible.

Image source: ACS Chemical Neuroscience (2022).
DOI:10.
1021/acschemneuro.
2c00342

Because having multiple biomarkers in a doctor's toolbox is very helpful, researchers Bin Xu et al.
began looking for additional p-tau protein biomarkers to effectively diagnose Alzheimer's disease or catch the disease
as early as possible 。 Using brain tissue from Alzheimer's patients and non-Alzheimer's disease subjects after death, the researchers identified multiple P-TAU biomarkers or selective correlations with TAU aggregation, as with P-TAU181 and P-TAU217, in which multiple biomarkers can help effectively distinguish between tissues from Alzheimer's patients and healthy individuals.
In particular, a marker called p-tau198 also distinguishes Alzheimer's disease from two other neurodegenerative diseases known to cluster tau
.

Further findings suggest that p-tau198 is as effective as p-tau181 and p-tau217 in these tests, and importantly, p-tau198 and p-tau217 may also effectively distinguish
brain tissue from those without mild cognitive impairment 。 Therefore, p-tau198 and p-tau217 may help clinicians intervene as early as possible since the emergence of new treatments to avoid major neurological damage, and this method can also be used to find tau protein biomarkers that carry other modifications besides phosphorylation
modifications.

In summary, the results of this study provide a new method that may hopefully help scientists develop diagnostic and differential tools or techniques
for Alzheimer's disease and related tau protein pathies.
(Biovalley Bioon.
com)

Original source:

Ling Wu,Nailya Gilyazova,John F.
Ervin, et al.
 Site-Specific Phospho-Tau Aggregation-Based Biomarker Discovery for AD Diagnosis and Differentiation, ACS Chemical Neuroscience (2022).
DOI: 10.
1021/acschemneuro.
2c00342