When Does Alzheimer′s Disease Really Start? The Role of Biomarkers

While Alzheimer’s disease (AD) classical diagnostic criteria rely on clinical data from a stablished symptomatic disease, newer criteria aim to identify the disease in its earlier stages. For that, they incorporated the use of AD’s specific biomarkers to reach a diagnosis, including the identificati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of molecular sciences Vol. 20; no. 22; p. 5536
Main Authors Lloret, Ana, Esteve, Daniel, Lloret, Maria-Angeles, Cervera-Ferri, Ana, Lopez, Begoña, Nepomuceno, Mariana, Monllor, Paloma
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.11.2019
MDPI
Subjects
ad dynamic
ad spectrum
Alzheimer's disease
Apolipoprotein E
Biomarkers
csf
Dementia
Dementia disorders
Diagnostic software
Diagnostic systems
Geriatrics
Glucose
imaging biomarkers
Memory
Mutation
Neostriatum
Peptides
Positron emission tomography
Review
Risk analysis
Risk factors
Signs and symptoms
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Summary:While Alzheimer’s disease (AD) classical diagnostic criteria rely on clinical data from a stablished symptomatic disease, newer criteria aim to identify the disease in its earlier stages. For that, they incorporated the use of AD’s specific biomarkers to reach a diagnosis, including the identification of Aβ and tau depositions, glucose hypometabolism, and cerebral atrophy. These biomarkers created a new concept of the disease, in which AD’s main pathological processes have already taken place decades before we can clinically diagnose the first symptoms. Therefore, AD is now considered a dynamic disease with a gradual progression, and dementia is its final stage. With that in mind, new models were proposed, considering the orderly increment of biomarkers and the disease as a continuum, or the variable time needed for the disease’s progression. In 2011, the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association (NIA-AA) created separate diagnostic recommendations for each stage of the disease continuum—preclinical, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia. However, new scientific advances have led them to create a unifying research framework in 2018 that, although not intended for clinical use as of yet, is a step toward shifting the focus from the clinical symptoms to the biological alterations and toward changing the future diagnostic and treatment possibilities. This review aims to discuss the role of biomarkers in the onset of AD.
ISSN:1422-0067
1661-6596
1422-0067
DOI:10.3390/ijms20225536