• Simon Lovestone, Paul Francis, Iwona Kloszewska, Patrizia Mecocci, Andrew Simmons, Hilkka Soininen, Christian Spenger, Magda Tsolaki, Bruno Vellas, Lars-Olof Wahlund, Malcolm Ward, and AddNeuroMed Consortium.
• NIHR Specialist Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom. Simon.Lovestone@kcl.ac.uk
• Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 2009 Oct 1; 1180: 36-46.

AbstractThere is an urgent need for Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers-especially in the context of clinical trials. Biomarkers for early diagnosis, disease progression, and prediction are most critical, and disease-modification therapy development may depend on the discovery and validation of such markers. AddNeuroMed is a cross European, public/private consortium developed for AD biomarker discovery. We report here the development and design of AddNeuroMed and the progress toward the development of plasma markers. Despite the obstacles to such markers, we have identified a range of markers including CFH and A2M, both of which have been independently replicated. The experience of AddNeuroMed leads us to three overall conclusions. First, collaboration is essential. Second, design is paramount and combining modalities, such as imaging and proteomics, may be informative. Third, animal models are valuable in biomarker research. Most importantly, we have learned that plasma markers are feasible.

10 keywords...

hide…