A possible blood plasma biomarker for early-stage Alzheimer's disease

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 17; no. 4; p. e0267407
• Main Authors: Banack, Sandra Anne, Stark, Aleksandra C, Cox, Paul Alan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 21-04-2022; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Alzheimer Disease - blood; Alzheimer Disease - drug therapy; Alzheimer's disease; Alzheimers disease; Amino acids; Analysis; Biological markers; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomarkers; Biomarkers - blood; Blood; Blood plasma; Brain research; Clinical trials; Clinical Trials, Phase II as Topic; Dementia; Diagnosis; Engineering and Technology; FDA approval; Humans; Medical diagnosis; Medicine and Health Sciences; Metabolites; Neurodegenerative diseases; Patients; Phosphates; Phospholipids; Physical Sciences; Physiology; Plasma; Research and Analysis Methods; Taurine; Taurine - therapeutic use; United States; St Louis Missouri; Wyoming; United States > US
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267407

We sought to identify a usable biomarker from blood samples to characterize early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, in order to facilitate rapid diagnosis, early therapeutic intervention, and monitoring of clinical trials. We compared metabolites from blood plasma in early-stage Alzheimer's disease patients with blood plasma from healthy controls using two different analytical platforms: Amino Acid Analyzer and Tandem Mass-Spectrometer. Early-stage Alzheimer's patient blood samples were obtained during an FDA-approved Phase IIa clinical trial (Clinicaltrial.gov NCT03062449). Participants included 25 early-stage Alzheimer's patients and 25 healthy controls in the United States. We measured concentrations of 2-aminoethyl dihydrogen phosphate and taurine in blood plasma samples. We found that plasma concentrations of a phospholipid metabolite, 2-aminoethyl dihydrogen phosphate, normalized by taurine concentrations, distinguish blood samples of patients with early-stage AD. This possible new Alzheimer's biomarker may supplement clinical diagnosis for early detection of the disease.