A team of researchers from the Faculty of Medicine at Osaka University has identified a molecule capable of being used as an alternative biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease. Substitution of a biomarker is a parameter which allows the monitoring to detect a disease or to follow its evolution in an indirect way.

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder resulting in progressive and irreversible loss of cognitive functions (eg memory, expression …) which particularly affects the elderly. Its causes are not yet fully known but are partly genetic, four genes related to disease have been identified. In the brain of patients, the disease is characterized by excessive aggregation in the form of plates of a peptide, beta-amyloid 42 (Aß42). More and more studies suggest that the accumulation of this peptide is toxic and causes dysfunction of neurons around which it settles. Furthermore, within the neurons of a patient collects another protein (called protein tau) in the form of neurofibrillary tangles. A key challenge in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease is that when the symptoms that can appear to be identified, the neurons have already suffered significant damage.

The researchers analyzed samples of brain tissue and cerebrospinal fluid from healthy person or suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. They measured the rates of three peptides in the cerebrospinal fluid. It was found that the rate of one of them called APL1ß28, is strongly correlated to the rate of Aß42 in the brain. In addition, in vitro tests have shown that the presence of a mutant allele is known that leads to abundant production of Aß42 causing increased production of APL1ß28. The study therefore suggests that the assessment rate APL1ß28 in the cerebrospinal fluid may enable early detection of disease. This opens new perspectives for treatment: indeed, one of the avenues of research present pharmaceutical formulation, a compound capable of inhibiting the formation of amyloid plaques. According to one of the researchers, these medications need to be taken very early in disease development to be effective, and is important to detect early.