Early Detection In Alzheimers Disease Biomarkers And Machines

In view of the growing prevalence of AD worldwide, there is an urgent need for the development of better diagnostic tools and more effective therapeutic interventions. Indeed, much work in this field has been done during last decades. As such, a major goal of current clinical research in AD is to improve early detection of disease and presymptomatic detection of neuronal dysfunction, concurrently with the development of better tools to assess disease progression in this group of disorders. All these putative correlates are commonly referred to as AD-related biomarkers. The ideal biomarker should be easy to quantify and measure, reproducible, not subject to wide variation in the general population and unaffected by co- morbid factors. For evaluation of therapies, a biomarker needs to change linearly with disease progression and closely correlate with established clinico-pathological parameters of the disease. There is growing evidence that the use of biomarkers will increase our ability to better indentify the underlying biology of AD, especially in its early stages. These biomarkers will improve the detection of the patients suitable for research studies and drug trials, and they will contribute to a better management of the disease in the clinical practice. Indeed, much work in this field has been done during last decades. The vast number of important applications, combined with the untamed diversity of already identified biomarkers, show that there is a pressing need to structure the research made on AD biomarkers into a solid, comprehensive and easy to use tool to de deployed in clinical settings. To date there are few publications compiling results on this topic. That is why when I was asked to address this task I accepted inmediately. I am happy to present you a bundle of the best articles published about biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease in recent times.

This issue of Medical Clinics covers the important advances surrounding the early intervention of Alzheimer's Disease. Guest edited by world-renowned experts from around the world, the topics covered will include evaluation of new diagnostic criteria, CSF biomarkers, diagnostic imaging, neurocognitive approaches, breaking clinical trials and more.

Early Detection of Alzheimer's Disease: Biological and Technological Advances aims to introduce to a wide audience the high global priority problem of detecting AD prior to dementia onset. According to the Alzheimer's Association, 5.8 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's and care costs will cost the nation approximately $290 billion (2019 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures). With the failure of recent AD drug trials, many hypothesize that by the time symptoms appear, it is too late to be treated. Early detection can offer benefits such as more choice of medications, ability to participate in clinical trials, more time for family and for care planning. This book outlines potential solutions to the above problem using opportunities arising from the technology revolution, advances in neuroscience, and molecular biology. Most importantly, it discusses a paradigm shift from a reactive to a proactive diagnostic approach, aiming to detect disease before occurrence of symptoms. Topics covered include the use of sensing technologies (e.g. smartphones, smartwatches, Internet of Things) to detect early disease-related changes, the application of data science (machine learning/AI) to extract otherwise invisible disease features from these datasets and the potential to personalize diagnosis based on tracking changes in individual behaviours. Advances in blood-based biomarkers, brain imaging, and the potential for early diagnosis to aid interventions (lifestyle, dietary, pharmacological) to delay future development of dementia are also discussed.

This volume discusses the importance of imaging, fluid, and genetic biomarkers in detecting the earliest pre-symptomatic stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The chapters in this book are separated into five parts. Part one explores the reasons why we need improved approaches for early detection and diagnosis of AD. Part two describes clinical and research techniques for preclinical AD diagnosis. Part three looks at the current methods in use to diagnose AD and how they can also be used for early detection in healthy older individuals. Parts four and five talk about technological advancements in AD diagnosis and ethical considerations in AD research. In Neuromethods series style, chapters include the kind of detail and key advice from the specialists needed to get successful results in your laboratory. Comprehensive and cutting-edge, Biomarkers for Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease is a valuable resource for individuals interested in the use of biomarker strategies to improve early AD detection. This book will be of great interest to researchers and clinicians from both academia and industry.”

Expanding knowledge on genetic and epigenetic risk factors is rapidly enhancing our understanding of the complex molecular interactions and systems involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. In this publication, leading experts discuss emerging novel conceptual models of the disease along with advances in the development of surrogate markers that will not only improve the accuracy of diagnostic technologies but also improve the prospects of developing disease-modifying interventions. The novel framework of the disease presented here highlights research on biological markers as well as efforts to validate technologies for early and accurate detection. It also introduces notion of a complex systems dysfunction that extends beyond prevailing ideas derived from the ‘amyloid’ or ‘tau’ hypotheses.This outstanding publication provides researchers, clinicians, students and other professionals interested in neurodegenerative disorders with a comprehensive update on current trends and future directions in therapy development, with special focus on advances in clinical trial designs.

Alzheimer disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by significant cognitive deficits, behavioral changes, sleep disorders and loss of functional autonomy. AD represents the main cause of dementia and has become a major public health issue. In addition, the number of patients suffering from AD is growing rapidly as the population ages worldwide. Memory impairment is usually the earliest clinical and core symptom of this disease. The diagnosis at a late clinical stage is relatively easy. However, a delay in the diagnosis is damageable for the handling of patients in terms of optimal medical and social care. The actual interest of the scientific head-ways is to optimize the diagnosis in prodromal stage of the disease and to propose personalized therapeutic solutions to individual patients. New revised AD diagnostic criteria include early alteration of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers: decrease of amyloïd peptides (Aβ42), and increase in tau and phosphorylated-tau (p-tau) protein concentration. This recognition of CSF biological biomarkers for the diagnosis of AD is a major step towards the “molecular” diagnosis and follow-up of the disease. Many issues are however still subject of debate. This e-book provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art of fluid biomarkers for AD, e.g. which novel biomarkers should be implemented in clinical practice for diagnosis or for monitoring treatment or side effects, which ones are new for AD or related dementias or what is the potential of peripheral blood markers. Moreover, the e-Book provides practical guidelines how to optimally and efficiently develop and validate novel biomarker assays, and to document and control pre-analytical variation.

A lot of research on biomarkers for Alzheimer is being done in the last few decades. The aim of these studies is to find some method to ease the diagnosis of Alzheimers as early as possible. Such methods are a range of blood or CSF tests on one hand and several types of neuroimaging scans on the other. Many of the images coming both from laboratory and neuroimaging are very visual and illustrative. These images, accompanied by a short description, can perfectly explain the main results and usefulness of every biomarker. The objective of this book would be to summarize the most important studies made in this field. Few publications have systematically compiled results on this topic and only one as an atlas. Readers would be interested in this publication because it allows reviewing the current status of research by handily visualizing the results.