Blood biomarker

A decisive factor in the progression of AD and the development of manifest cognitive disorders is the functional failure of the Tau protein due to its hyperphosphorylation at different sites of the molecule (e.g. p-tau 181 or p-tau 217). As mentioned at various points in the updates here, this change in the phosphorylation pattern of the Tau molecule is a process that is apparently modified or even initiated by lifestyle over time.

Tau regulation takes place during sleep, see above under The role of sleep & EEG and there (Holth & Fritschi, 2019). Irregularities in sleep caused by tau regulation in AD can be measured by EEG. An early AI-based prediction of AD is highly probable by EEG together with the new blood tests currently being developed in the Swedish BIOFINDER study, the reliability of which has been validated, which allow a differentiated detection of phosphorylations of the tau protein in Alzheimer's patients, see (Janelidze, 2020) and (Palmqvist, 2020), and by detecting this harbinger of later possible Alzheimer's dementia, a very early diagnosis and prognosis with an appropriate therapy, e.g. Gamma Entrainment, is possible.

References:

  1. Janelidze, S., Mattson, N., Palmqvist, S., Smith, R., Beach, Th.G., Serrano, G.E., Chai, X., Proctor, N.K., Eichenlaub, U., Zetterberg, H., Blennow, K., Reiman, E.M., Stomrud, E., Dage, J.L., Hansson, O., (2020), Plasma P-tau181 in Alzheimer’s disease: relationship to other biomarkers, differential diagnosis, neuropathology and longitudinal progression to Alzheimer’s dementia. Nature Medicine, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0755-1
  2. Sebastian Palmqvist, MD, PhD1,2; Shorena Janelidze, PhD1; Yakeel T. Quiroz, PhD3,4; Henrik Zetterberg, MD, PhD5,6,7,8; Francisco Lopera, MD4; Erik Stomrud, MD, PhD1,2; Yi Su, PhD9; Yinghua Chen, MSc9; Geidy E. Serrano, PhD10; Antoine Leuzy, PhD1; Niklas Mattsson-Carlgren, MD, PhD1,11,12; Olof Strandberg, PhD1; Ruben Smith, MD, PhD1,12; Andres Villegas, MD4; Diego Sepulveda-Falla, MD4,13; Xiyun Chai, MD14; Nicholas K. Proctor, BS14; Thomas G. Beach, MD, PhD10; Kaj Blennow, MD, PhD5,6; Jeffrey L. Dage, PhD14; Eric M. Reiman, MD9,15,16,17; Oskar Hansson, MD, PhD1,2: Discriminative Accuracy of Plasma Phospho-tau 217 for Alzheimer Disease vs Other Neurodegenerative Disorders. JAMA. Published online July 28, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.12134

    Author Affiliations:

    • 1 Clinical Memory Research Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, Malmö, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
    • 2 Memory Clinic, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden
    • 3 Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston
    • 4 Grupo de Neurociencias de Antioquia of Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia
    • 5 Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Mölndal, Sweden
    • 6 Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Mölndal, Sweden
    • 7 Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, United Kingdom
    • 8 UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL, London, United Kingdom
    • 9 Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, Phoenix, Arizona
    • 10 Banner Sun Health Research Institute, Sun City, Arizona
    • 11 Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
    • 12 Department of Neurology, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden
    • 13 Molecular Neuropathology of Alzheimer’s Disease (MoNeA), Institute of Neuropathology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
    • 14 Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, Indiana
    • 15 University of Arizona, Phoenix
    • 16 Arizona State University, Phoenix
    • 17 Translational Genomics Research Institute, Phoenix, Arizona