C‐terminal neurogranin is increased in cerebrospinal fluid but unchanged in plasma in Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

There is a need for improved early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), especially in stages before dementia onset. Current parameters, such as the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers tau and Aβ_1–42, are highly predictive for the imminent occurrence of AD but have poor prognostic value regarding onset of cognitive decline [ 1 x [1] Molinuevo, J.L., Blennow, K., Dubois, B., Engelborghs, S., Lewczuk, P., Perret-Liaudet, A. et al. The clinical use of cerebrospinal fluid biomarker testing for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis: A consensus paper from the Alzheimer's Biomarkers Standardization Initiative. Alzheimers Dement. 2014; 10: 808–817 Abstract | Full Text | Full Text PDF | PubMed | Scopus (86) | Google Scholar See all References ] [1] . From a neuropathologic perspective, the link between cognitive decline and tau/tangle or amyloid/plaque pathology seems complex [ 2 x [2] Nelson, P.T., Braak, H., and Markesbery, W.R. Neuropathology and cognitive impairment in Alzheimer disease: A complex but coherent relationship. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2009; 68: 1–14 Crossref | PubMed | Scopus (275) | Google Scholar See all References ] [2] . Because the loss of brain synapses is much closer related to cognitive decline [ 3 x [3] Terry, R.D., Masliah, E., Salmon, D.P., Butters, N., DeTeresa, R., Hill, R. et al. Physical basis of cognitive alterations in Alzheimer's disease: Synapse loss is the major correlate of cognitive impairment. Ann Neurol. 1991; 30: 572–580 Crossref | PubMed | Scopus (2572) | Google Scholar See all References , 4 x [4] Blennow, K., Bogdanovic, N., Alafuzoff, I., Ekman, R., and Davidsson, P. Synaptic pathology in Alzheimer's disease: Relation to severity of dementia, but not to senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, or the ApoE4 allele. J Neural Transm. 1996; 103: 603–618 Crossref | PubMed | Scopus (119) | Google Scholar See all References ], a synaptic CSF biomarker could thus improve the prognostic accuracy of the AD biomarker panel.