Study examines cerebrospinal fluid markers in relation to Alzheimer’s disease

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A study by Maureen Handoko, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA, and colleagues, suggested that in cognitively intact older adults cerebrospinal fluid  amyloid-β trimers and Αβ*56 were elevated in patients at risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

The cerebrospinal fluid sampling study included 48 older adults with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease, 49 age-matched cognitively intact control participants, and 10 younger, normal control participants. In the study the two specific Αβ oligomers in cerebrospinal fluid were examined to analyse the relationship of aging and Alzheimer’s with tau in the cerebrospinal fluid.

Cerebrospinal fluid Αβ trimers and AB*56 also showed stronger relationships with tau than did Αβ1-42, a surrogate for Αβ fibril deposition, according to the study results.

“These findings suggest that prior to overt symptoms, one or both of the Αβ oligomers, but not fibrillar Αβ, is coupled to tau; however this coupling is weakened or broken when Alzheimer’s disease advances to symptomatic stages,” Handoko and others noted.

The authors suggested that more research was required. “Additional molecular studies in animals and cells, as well as longitudinal clinical studies in humans, may better define the pathogenic roles of these oligomers and elucidate their molecular interactions with tau” they concluded.