Increased Expression of TREM2 in Peripheral Blood of Alzheimer's Disease Patients

Article type: Short Communication

Authors: Hu, Nan^{a; 1} | Tan, Meng-Shan^{b; 1} | Yu, Jin-Tai^{a; b; c} | Sun, Lei^a | Tan, Lin^a | Wang, Ying-Li^a | Jiang, Teng^c | Tan, Lan^{a; b; c; *}

Affiliations: [a] Department of Neurology, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, School of Medicine, Qingdao University, China | [b] College of Medicine and Pharmaceutics, Ocean University of China, China | [c] Department of Neurology, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, China

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Dr. Lan Tan or Jin-Tai Yu, Department of Neurology, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, School of Medicine, Qingdao University, No.5 Donghai Middle Road, Qingdao, Shandong Province 266071, China. E-mail: dr.tanlan@163.com (L. Tan); E-mail: yu-jintai@163.com (J.T. Yu).

Note: [1] These authors contributed equally to this manuscript.

Abstract: TREM2 has been reported to be associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we evaluated TREM2 mRNA and protein expressions in peripheral blood from AD patients and healthy controls. Higher levels of TREM2 mRNA (p = 0.002) and protein (p < 0.001) were identified in AD patients. We observed a significant correlation between TREM2 expressions and MMSE score (mRNA: r = −0.482, protein: r = −0.582; p < 0.01). According to ROC curve analysis, the diagnostic accuracy for TREM2 protein levels on monocytes was 70%, with the sensitivity and specificity 68% and 72%, respectively. Our results indicate that TREM2 might serve as a novel noninvasive biomarker for AD diagnosis.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, biomarker, blood, diagnosis, mRNA, plasma, protein, TREM2

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-130854

Journal: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 497-501, 2014