Advances in blood biomarkers for Alzheimer disease (AD): A review.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review of blood biomarkers for Alzheimer disease without systematic review methodology
PubMed 38888066 · doi:10.1002/kjm2.12870
What was done
This narrative review summarizes recent developments in blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer disease and related dementias. It examines candidates including amyloid-beta peptides, tau protein, neurofilament light chain, and glial fibrillary acidic protein for their roles in clinical diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic monitoring, while discussing current implementation challenges.
What was found
The abstract provides a qualitative overview of the landscape of blood biomarkers without reporting numerical data, diagnostic sensitivity or specificity metrics, or effect sizes. It describes blood biomarkers as emerging non-invasive, cost-effective alternatives to cerebrospinal fluid testing and positron emission tomography for evaluating Alzheimer disease pathology.
Why it matters
Blood biomarkers could overcome major barriers associated with positron emission tomography and lumbar puncture, including high costs, limited accessibility, and invasiveness. This could facilitate earlier detection and broader screening in clinical practice.
Limits
The abstract contains no quantitative findings, diagnostic performance metrics, or details regarding the search strategy, study selection criteria, or sample sizes of the reviewed literature. Blood biomarkers also face practical challenges and validation hurdles before routine clinical implementation.
Cited by
- supports Quest Laboratories offers diagnostic testing for Alzheimer's blood biomarkers including p-tau 181, p-tau 217, neurofilament light, and beta-amyloid 42/40 ratio.