The past and the future of Alzheimer’s disease CSF biomarkers – a journey towards validated biochemical tests covering the whole spectra of molecular events

Abstract

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This paper gives a short review on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), from early developments to high-precision validated assays on fully automated lab analyzers. We also discuss developments on novel biomarkers, such as synaptic proteins and Aβ oligomers. Our vision for the future is that assaying a set of biomarkers in a single CSF tube can monitor the whole spectra of AD molecular pathogenic events. CSF biomarkers will have a central position not only for clinical diagnosis, but also for the understanding of the sequence of molecular events in the pathogenic process underlying AD and as tools to monitor the effects of novel drug candidates targeting these different mechanisms.

Keywords

• Alzheimer Disease
• Cerebrospinal Fluid
• Neurogranin
• tau Proteins
• biomarker
• oligomers