Differential diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases with special emphasis on Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Issue title: Molecular Markers of Brain Damage – Current State and Future Perspectives

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Otto, Markus | Wiltfang, Jens

Affiliations: Department of Neurology, University of Goettingen, Germany | Department of Psychiatry, University of Erlangen, Germany

Note: [] Corresponding author: PD Dr. Markus Otto, Department of Neurology, University of Goettingen, Robert-Koch Str. 40, 37070 Goettingen, Germany. Tel.: +49 551 39 8404/8363; Fax: +49 551 39 14449; E-mail: motto@gwdg.de

Abstract: In principle, two research approaches can be considered for the laboratory diagnosis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE): (i) the direct detection of PrP^{Sc} and (ii) the detection of surrogate markers in biological materials that show an altered pattern of expression in early stages of the disease or are used in the differential diagnosis of other dementias and thus enable an exclusion diagnosis. This review concentrates on the second approach. It was shown that a single determination of just a few markers (tau-protein, S-100B, 14-3-3-protein) was already sufficient to achieve a high degree of diagnostic certainty in the diagnosis of CJD. On the basis of the available data, it is to be expected that a combination of these markers will bring improved diagnostic strength with regard to the differential diagnosis of dementias as a whole. This especially applies to some of the subtypes of CJD and Alzheimer's dementia (AD).

Journal: Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, vol. 21, no. 3-4, pp. 191-209, 2003