Genetic risk factors and candidate biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease
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Abstract
Alzheimer's disease is a multifactorial and
progressive neurodegenerative disease, extremely diffused
and with an increasing prevalence worldwide. There is an
urgent need for biomarkers to diagnose AD early in its
course. Furthermore, accurate biomarkers would be able to
determine the clinical efficacy of novel neuroprotective
strategies. Although the heritability of late-onset AD is
high, our knowledge of the underlying putative
susceptibility genes remains incomplete and the only
unequivocally established late-onset AD gene is APOE.
Nevertheless a number of susceptibility loci seems to
influence the pathogenesis of AD, and variations in
numerous genes have been considered to be important in
the risk for AD. Many advances have been made in
identifying biochemical indices of brain dysfunction,
measured in body fluids such as cerebrospinal fluid and
plasma, with different methodological approaches.
Although these biomarkers are promising, none of them
can predict AD with 100% confidence to date. This review
will elaborate on the available selection of genetic and
biochemical biomarkers for AD, with a particular reference
to those linked to inflammation and oxidative stress