Blood based proteomic biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease pathology

Abstract

The complexity of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and its long prodromal phase poses challenges for early diagnosis and yet allows for the possibility of the development of disease modifying treatments for secondary prevention. It is therefore of importance to develop biomarkers, in particular in the preclinical or early phases that reflect the pathological characteristics of the disease and moreover could be of utility in triaging subjects for preventative therapeutic clinical trials. Much research has sought biomarkers for diagnostic purposes by comparing affected people to unaffected controls. However, given that AD pathology precedes disease onset, a pathology endophenotype design for biomarker discovery creates the opportunity for detection of much earlier markers of disease. Blood based biomarkers potentially provide a minimally invasive option for this purpose and research in the field has adopted various omics approaches in order to achieve this. This review will therefore examine the current literature regarding blood based proteomic biomarkers of AD and its associated pathology