| An Ideal
Biological Marker of Alzheimer´s Disease: Dream
or Reality? D. ŘÍPOVÁ, A.
STRUNECKÁ1
Prague
Psychiatric Center, Laboratory of Biochemistry
and 1Faculty of
Sciences, Department of Physiology and
Developmental Biology, Charles University,
Prague, Czech Republic
Received
July 7, 2000
Accepted August 16, 2000
Summary
Senile dementia of Alzheimer´s type (AD) is
commonly characterized as a neurodegenerative
disorder, which exhibits gradual changes of
consciousness, loss of memory, perception and
orientation as well as loss of personality and
intellect. AD prevalence increases dramatically
with age and is the fourth cause of death in
Europe and in the USA. Currently, there are no
available biological markers, which gives
clinicians no other alternative than to rely upon
clinical diagnosis by exclusion. There is no
assay of objective ante mortem biochemical
phenomena that relate to the pathophysiology of
this disease. The pathophysiology of AD is
connected with alterations in neurotransmission,
plaque formation, cytoskeletal abnormalities and
disturbances of calcium homeostasis. The search
for a test, which is non-invasive, simple, cheap
and user-friendly, should be directed at
accessible body fluids. Only abnormalities
replicated in large series across different
laboratories fulfilling the criteria for a
biological marker are likely to be of relevance
in diagnosing AD. To date, only the combination
of cerebrospinal fluid t and Ab42 most closely
approximate an ideal biomarker of Alzheimer´s
disease. A short review on the role of biological
markers in AD on the basis of the literature,
contemporary knowledge and our own recent
findings are presented.
Key
words
Alzheimer´s disease · Biological peripheral
marker · ß-amyloid · Protein t · Review
Reprint
requests
RNDr. D. Řípová, CSc., Prague Psychiatric
Center, Laboratory of Biochemistry, Ústavní 91,
181 03 Prague 8 - Bohnice, Czech Republic. Fax:
+420 2 66003134, e-mail: ripova@pcp.lf3.cuni.cz
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