engleski

Correlation of macro and microelements and Alzheimer’s disease protein biomarkers measured in cerebrospinal fluid

Objective: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly (affecting over 30 million people worldwide). Clinical diagnosis of AD, which is still based on symptomatology, is accurate in only 63 to 90% of dementia cases. A growing number of potential treatments for AD are in different phases of preclinical and clinical research and thus much effort is dedicated to identify reliable biomarkers to enable an accurate diagnosis of AD. The homeostasis of macro and microelements is altered in the brain of patients suffering from AD. Also, senile plaques that are one of the two main neuropathological features of AD contain high amounts of metals like Cu, Zn and Fe. The scope of this study was to see if 24 macro and microelements (Li, B, Na, Mg, Al, S, K, Ca, Cr, Fe, Co, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Sr, Mo, Cd, Ba, Tl, Pb and Hg) correlate with 6 AD protein biomarkers (Aβ1-42, t-tau, p-tau181, p-tau199, p-tau231 and VILIP-1) measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 63 patients suffering from AD, 31 from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 11 healthy controls. Methods: Macro and microelements’ and protein biomarkers’ concentrations in CSF were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), respectively. Results: There was a negative correlation between Aβ1-42 and Co, while positive correlations were obtained between t-tau and Li, As, Se and Sr, p-tau181 and B, Na, Mg, S, K, Ca, Cr, Fe, Co, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Mo, Tl and Hg, p-tau199 and B, Na, Mg, S, K, Ca, Cr, Fe, Co, Mn, Cu, As, Se, Sr, Mo, Cd, Ba, Tl and Hg, p-tau231 and Li, B, Na, Mg, S, K, Cr, Fe, Co, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Se, Sr, Mo, Tl and H, VILIP-1 and Li, B, Na, Mg, S, K, Ca, Cr, Fe, Co, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Sr, Mo, Cd, Ba, Tl and Hg. Conclusions: Although possible explanations of altered levels of macro and microelements in AD brain will await identification of their environmental sources or detection of their release from brain tissue due to cell death, these results warrant further examination of metals in CSF on larger groups of healthy controls, MCI, and AD patients as they have high potential to become valuable biomarkers of AD neurodegenerative process.

Alzheimer's disease ; mild cognitive impairment ; biomarkers ; cerebrospinal fluid ; macro and microelements

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