A novel panel of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers for the differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease versus normal aging and frontotemporal dementia.

BACKGROUND: An early and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is important in order to initiate symptomatic treatment with currently approved drugs and will be of even greater importance with the advent of disease-modifying compounds. METHODS: Protein profiles of human cerebrospinal fluid samples from patients with AD (n = 85), frontotemporal dementia (n = 20), and healthy controls (n = 32) were analyzed by surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry to verify previously discovered biomarkers. RESULTS: We verified 15 protein biomarkers that were able to differentiate between AD and controls, and 7 of these 15 markers also differentiated AD from FTD. CONCLUSION: A panel of cerebrospinal fluid protein markers was verified by a proteomics technology which may potentially improve the accuracy of the AD diagnosis.