Plasma biomarkers in patients with moderate cognitive impairment helps predict dementia risk: Study

A new study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease revealed that plasma biomarkers may be used to predict whether people with moderate cognitive impairment (MCI) would develop dementia. 

One of the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease, Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects about 6.5 million Americans 65 and older, and its prevalence is expected to more than quadruple by 2060. Clinical signs of AD are usually preceded by pathologic alterations in the brain. It is anticipated that people with AD-specific pathologic alterations may develop dementia at different rates in the absence of disease-modifying treatments.

Slow amyloid-β (Aβ) protein aggregation, hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau) buildup, and concurrent functional and structural neuronal degeneration are hallmark degenerative brain alterations in AD. Imaging and biofluid biomarkers offer in vivo estimates of brain disease with differing degrees of accuracy, but postmortem pathology is still the gold standard for measuring AD pathology.

The application of blood-based biomarkers (BBMs) of neurodegeneration (e.g., neurofilament light chain, NfL) and core pathological biomarkers (e.g., Aβ and phosphorylated tau, p-tau) has a high potential, according to results from many studies. Therefore, by evaluating BBM, CSF, and MRI measures separately, adding BBMs to CSF measures, and adding BBMs to the combination of CSF and MRI, this study examined the ability of various biomarker combinations (i.e., CSF, MRI, and BBMs) and the impact of each distinct measure to the models to predict MCI-conversion.