Biomarkers for dementia

Katsutoshi Furukawa, Hiroyuki Arai

Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Division of Brain Sciences, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer

　　There is a great need for new modalities in diagnosing dementia including Alzheimer's disease (AD) as accurately and early as possible with the increase in researchers' effort toward fundamental and disease modifying treatment.　Great attention has been paid to biomarkers from biofluids (blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), urine, etc) to improve of dementia diagnosis.　So far low A and high total or phosphorylated tau in CSF from AD are confirmed by several laboratories.　Although many proteomics approaches are performed, any reliable biomarkers have not yet been established from plasma or serum.　Because Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) is now on-going, we are looking forward to a novel reliable biomarker for diagnosis of dementia raised from the ADNI project.

Adress correspondence to Dr. Katsutoshi Furukawa, Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Division of Brain Sciences, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer(4-1 Seiryo-machi, Aobaku, Sendai 980-8574, Japan)