However, all these biomarkers have a high economical cost and are invasive, making them unsuitable for routine screening.
A recent report published by a team of researchers from the UAB Institute of Neuroscience (INc) and the Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), as well as other collaborators, and led by INc researcher Dolors Siedlecki-Wullich, identified in plasma a miRNA-based signature composed by miR-92a-3p, miR-181c-5p and miR-210-3p. The authors found a significant increase in the plasma levels of these miRNAs in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD patients. Moreover, preliminary data support that this miRNAs signature can be used to predict the progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to AD.
"We have identified a cost-effective blood-based biomarker which would improve participants' recruitment in future clinical trials, boosting the therapeutic advancement in AD. Moreover, it would allow patients and their families to benefit from an earlier implementation of non-pharmacological therapies used to maintain cognitive function, improving the overall quality of life of AD patients", explains UAB's INc researcher José Rodríguez.
According to Dolors Siedlecki-Wullich, "These observations would support the future development of a molecular kit that shall provide an easy, minimally invasive, effective and affordable method for prodromal AD diagnosis in routine clinical screening worldwide".
The article, published this week in Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, included the involvement of researchers from the UAB Institute of Neuroscience; the UAB Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; the Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED); the Research Center and Memory Clinic, the ACE Foundation, the Catalan Institute of Applied Neurosciences of the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC); the Department of Neurology of the Hospital Sant Pau Research Institute - IIB Sant Pau, a UAB-affiliated centre; and the Department of Neurosciences of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.
MEDICA-tradefair.com; Source: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
