Affiliations: [a] Molecular Markers Laboratory, IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy
| [b] Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS Foundation, Milan, Italy
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Roberta Ghidoni, Molecular Markers Laboratory, IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, via Pilastroni 4, Brescia I-25125, Italy. Tel.: +39 030 3501725; Fax: +39 030 3533513; E-mail: rghidoni@fatebenefratelli.eu.
Abstract: The criteria for the clinical diagnosis of AD include the analysis of biomarkers of the underlying brain disease pathology; a set of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tests, amyloid-β1-42 (Aβ42), total-tau (t-tau), and phosphorylated tau (p-tau), are available and their performance in a clinical setting has been assessed in several studies. Thus, in dementia research, great advances have been made in the discovery of putative biomarkers; however, disappointingly, few of them have been translated into clinically applicable assays. To find biomarkers able to reliably detect AD pathology already at prodromal stages and in blood is even more important. Recent technical breakthroughs have provided ultrasensitive methods that allow the detection of brain-specific proteins in blood. In the present review, we will focus on the usefulness of ultrasensitive technologies for biomarker discovery and trace elements detection; moreover, we will review studies on circulating nano-compartments, a promising novel source of material for molecular diagnostics.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, biomarkers, extracellular vesicles/exosomes, trace elements
