engleski

Improved early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease by combination of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading primary cause of dementia. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a syndrome characterized by cognitive impairment without dementia. About 12% of MCI patients however have an initial stage of AD. There is an urgent need for novel CSF biomarkers to improve the early diagnosis of AD. Visinin-like protein-1 (VILIP-1), a neuron- specific intracellular calcium sensor protein, is a novel promising biomarker of AD. VILIP-1 was previously identified as a marker of neuronal injury. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess whether combination of cerebrospinal fluid VILIP-1 and tau protein phosphorylated at threonine 181 (p-tau 181) could improve early diagnosis of AD. The concentration of VILIP-1 and p-tau 181 was determined using ELISA kits in the CSF of 60 patients with probable AD, 30 MCI patients, and 14 healthy controls (HC). Levels of VILIP-1 were significantly higher in the group of AD patients than in MCI patients (p = 0.001). ROC curve analysis showed that VILIP-1 could differentiate AD patients from HC with a sensitivity and specificity of 86.7% and 57.1%, respectively, while VILIP-1/p-tau 181 ratio reached 75% sensitivity and 71.4% specificity. About 50% of MCI patients had VILIP-1 and p-tau 181 levels higher than the cut-off (assessed by ROC curve analysis). Even though a follow-up period of at minimum 5 years is necessary to determine whether MCI high-risk patients will convert to AD, the combination of VILIP-1 and p-tau 181 could considerably improve AD detection in the preclinical stages of the disease.

Mild cognitive impairment; Alzheimer's disease; cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers

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