Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Jul 25;101(4):172-180.
doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000207193. Epub 2023 Mar 6.

Blood Biomarkers in Neurodegenerative Diseases: Implications for the Clinical Neurologist

Daniel Alcolea  1 , Michal Schnaider Beeri  2 , Julio C Rojas  2 , Raquel C Gardner  2 , Alberto Lleó  1
Affiliations
Review

Blood Biomarkers in Neurodegenerative Diseases: Implications for the Clinical Neurologist

Daniel Alcolea et al. Neurology. .

Abstract

Blood-based biomarkers offer a major advance in the clinical evaluation of neurodegenerative diseases. Currently, research studies have reported robust assays of blood markers for the detection of amyloid and tau pathologies specific to Alzheimer disease (amyloid-β peptides, and p-tau) and nonspecific blood markers of neuronal (neurofilament light, β-synuclein, and ubiquitin-C-terminal-hydrolase-L1) and glial degeneration (glial fibrillary acidic protein) that can measure key pathophysiologic processes in several neurodegenerative diseases. In the near future, these markers may be used for screening, diagnosis, or disease and treatment response monitoring. Blood-based biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases have been rapidly implemented in research, and they have the potential to enter clinical use soon in different clinical settings. In this review, we will describe the main developments and their potential implications for the general neurologist.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

D. Alcolea participated in advisory boards from Fujirebio-Europe and Roche Diagnostics, received speaker honoraria from Fujirebio-Europe, Roche Diagnostics, Nutricia, Krka Farmacéutica S.L., Zambon S.A.U., and Esteve Pharmaceuticals S.A. and declares a filed patent application (WO2019175379 A1 markers of synaptopathy in neurodegenerative disease). M.S. Beeri reports no disclosures relevant to the manuscript. J.C. Rojas is the site PI for clinical trials sponsored by Eli-Lilly and Eisai and is supported by NIH/NIA K23AG059888. R.C. Gardner has received consulting fees from BrainBox Inc and is supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke R01NS110944 and VA CSRD Merit CX002346. A. Lleó participated in advisory boards from Fujirebio-Europe, Grifols, Novartis, Roche Diagnostics, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Nutricia, Zambón S.A.U., and Biogen, received speaker honoraria from Lilly, Biogen, KRKA, and Zambon and declares a filed patent application (WO2019175379 A1 markers of synaptopathy in neurodegenerative disease). Go to Neurology.org/N for full disclosures.

References

    1. Gaiottino J, Norgren N, Dobson R, et al. . Increased neurofilament light chain blood levels in neurodegenerative neurological diseases. PLoS One. 2013;8(9):e75091. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kaneko N, Nakamura A, Washimi Y, et al. . Novel plasma biomarker surrogating cerebral amyloid deposition. Proc Jpn Acad Ser B Phys Biol Sci. 2014;90(9):353-364. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nakamura A, Kaneko N, Villemagne VL, et al. . High performance plasma amyloid-β biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease. Nature. 2018;554(7691):249-254. - PubMed
    1. Tatebe H, Kasai T, Ohmichi T, et al. . Quantification of plasma phosphorylated tau to use as a biomarker for brain Alzheimer pathology: pilot case-control studies including patients with Alzheimer's disease and down syndrome. Mol Neurodegener. 2017;12(1):63. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mielke MM, Hagen CE, Xu J, et al. . Plasma phospho-tau181 increases with Alzheimer's disease clinical severity and is associated with tau- and amyloid-positron emission tomography. Alzheimers Dement. 2018;14(8):989-997. - PMC - PubMed