engleski

Analysis of ASC protein levels in CSF and plasma of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease subjects

Many recent studies confrmed importance of the NLRP3 and NLRP1 inflammasome activation in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC) has a key role in assembling inflammasome complex as it couples danger signal sensors and procaspase-1. We aimed to compare CSF and plasma concentrations of ASC protein in AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and cognitively normal controls, and to correlate them with subjects’ age, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score, and core CSF biomarkers of AD (levels of Aβ1-42, total tau [t-tau], and tau phosphorylated at epitope 181 [p−tau181]). Concentrations of ASC were measured in 127 AD, 78 MCI, and 39 control CSF samples and 82 AD, 33 MCI, and 9 control plasma samples using ELISA. Compared to controls, the ASC levels in CSF were significantly higher in the AD and MCI group, whereas differences in plasma levels did not reach significance. CSF levels of ASC protein also positively correlated with the age of the subjects and the concentrations of t-tau and p-tau181. Therefore, we concluded that the ASC level in CSF, but not in plasma, could be a useful biomarker of both tau pathology and inflammasome activation in AD.

Alzheimer's disease ; apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC) ; cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) ; Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) ; NLRP1 inflammasome ; NLRP3 inflammasome ; plasma ; protein biomarkers

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