Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease based on disease-specific autoantibody profiles in human sera

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 6; no. 8; p. e23112
• Main Authors: Nagele, Eric, Han, Min, Demarshall, Cassandra, Belinka, Benjamin, Nagele, Robert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 03.08.2011; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Advertising executives; Aged; Aging; Alzheimer Disease - blood; Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; Alzheimer's disease; Apolipoproteins; Arrays; Autoantibodies; Autoantibodies - blood; Autoimmunity; Bioindicators; Biology; Biomarkers; Breast cancer; Cognitive ability; Consortia; Dementia; Demographics; Dentistry; Diagnosis; Diagnostic systems; Female; Genomes; Humans; Male; Medical diagnosis; Medical research; Medicine; Middle Aged; Movement disorders; Neurodegeneration; Neurodegenerative diseases; Osteopathic medicine; Parkinson's disease; Pathology; Primary care; Protein Array Analysis; Protein arrays; Proteins; Task forces; Young Adult; Pittsburgh Pennsylvania; United States > US; New Jersey; New Brunswick New Jersey
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0023112

After decades of Alzheimer's disease (AD) research, the development of a definitive diagnostic test for this disease has remained elusive. The discovery of blood-borne biomarkers yielding an accurate and relatively non-invasive test has been a primary goal. Using human protein microarrays to characterize the differential expression of serum autoantibodies in AD and non-demented control (NDC) groups, we identified potential diagnostic biomarkers for AD. The differential significance of each biomarker was evaluated, resulting in the selection of only 10 autoantibody biomarkers that can effectively differentiate AD sera from NDC sera with a sensitivity of 96.0% and specificity of 92.5%. AD sera were also distinguishable from sera obtained from patients with Parkinson's disease and breast cancer with accuracies of 86% and 92%, respectively. Results demonstrate that serum autoantibodies can be used effectively as highly-specific and accurate biomarkers to diagnose AD throughout the course of the disease.