Large-scale plasma proteomic profiling identifies a high-performance biomarker panel for Alzheimer's disease screening and staging

INTRODUCTION: Blood proteins are emerging as candidate biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD). We systematically profiled the plasma proteome to identify novel AD blood biomarkers and develop a high-performance, blood-based test for AD. METHODS: We quantified 1160 plasma proteins in a Hong Kong Chinese cohort by high-throughput proximity extension assay and validated the results in an independent cohort. In subgroup analyses, plasma biomarkers for amyloid, tau, phosphorylated tau, and neurodegeneration were used as endophenotypes of AD. RESULTS: We identified 429 proteins that were dysregulated in AD plasma. We selected 19 “hub proteins” representative of the AD plasma protein profile, which formed the basis of a scoring system that accurately classified clinical AD (area under the curve = 0.9690–0.9816) and associated endophenotypes. Moreover, specific hub proteins exhibit disease stage-dependent dysregulation, which can delineate AD stages. DISCUSSION: This study comprehensively profiled the AD plasma proteome and serves as a foundation for a high-performance, blood-based test for clinical AD screening and staging

Do different academic skills and IQ share the same genetic factor?

Interactive poster- I. I. Gottesman Memorial Poster SessionResearch has shown that general intelligence and academic attainment are highly heritable. One important question that remains unresolved is to what extent the same genes influence IQ and different academic skills like reading and mathematics. A total of 202 pairs of Chinese twins (with 92 pairs identical, and 110 pairs non-identical) were recruited from Hong Kong. The participants were first to fourth grade Chinese-English bilingual readers. Four measures, Chinese word reading, English word reading, Mathematics, Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices, were included in the present analyses. To adjust for age effects, the standardized residual scores regressing on age were used in the analyses. Results of univariate genetic analyses show that about one-third of the variance of Chinese word reading and mathematics were affected by genetic factors, while English word reading was more affected by common environmental factors. It was also found that the genetic correlation between Chinese and English reading was very high (.90), while that between reading and mathematics were moderate (.48 to .53). The environmental correlation between reading and mathematics was around .35, suggesting some shared home and school factors influencing general academic learning. We further tested two multivariate models to examine whether the three academic skills and IQ were affected by the same or different genetic factors. Results show that the best fitted model was having one common genetic factor. The present findings appear to support the generalist gene hypothesis for academic skills and general intelligence. Those who are born smarter tend to perform better academically in different school subjects. However, home and school education also plays some role on academic learning, especially on second language learning

Large‐scale plasma proteomic profiling identifies a high‐performance biomarker panel for Alzheimer's disease screening and staging

INTRODUCTION: Blood proteins are emerging as candidate biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD). We systematically profiled the plasma proteome to identify novel AD blood biomarkers and develop a high-performance, blood-based test for AD. METHODS: We quantified 1160 plasma proteins in a Hong Kong Chinese cohort by high-throughput proximity extension assay and validated the results in an independent cohort. In subgroup analyses, plasma biomarkers for amyloid, tau, phosphorylated tau, and neurodegeneration were used as endophenotypes of AD. RESULTS: We identified 429 proteins that were dysregulated in AD plasma. We selected 19 “hub proteins” representative of the AD plasma protein profile, which formed the basis of a scoring system that accurately classified clinical AD (area under the curve = 0.9690–0.9816) and associated endophenotypes. Moreover, specific hub proteins exhibit disease stage-dependent dysregulation, which can delineate AD stages. DISCUSSION: This study comprehensively profiled the AD plasma proteome and serves as a foundation for a high-performance, blood-based test for clinical AD screening and staging

Emerging environmental multi-level governance in China? Environmental protests, public participation and local institution-building

Chinese state reforms have resulted in a horizontal and vertical diffusion of actors in policy making and policy implementation, leading to the creation of new collaborative institutions between government and non-government actors. At the non-governmental level, this has inter alia enabled the development of non-governmental organizations and the passage of a raft of legislation for public participation and access to information. However, the political and legal constraints imposed by the authoritarian system have meant that private citizens still find it hard to make their voice heard. Public participation legislation has suffered from an implementation gap, leading to the proliferation of environmental protests across China. For private citizens, therefore, protest outside of the formal-legal channels is a key tool to influence the policy process and demand public participation and better government accountability. There are indications that protests may result in the improvement and creation of local institutions that facilitate public participation, which in turn help to foster a new model of governance that contains features of multilevel governance