Cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer’s disease(AD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder that takes about a decade to develop, making early diagnosis possible. Clinically, the diagnosis of AD is complicated, costly, and inaccurate, so it is urgent to fi nd specifi c biomarkers. Due to its multifactorial nature, a panel of biomarkers for the multiple pathologies of AD, such as cerebral amyloidogenesis, neuronal dysfunction, synapse loss, oxidative stress, and infl ammation, are most promising for accurate diagnosis. Highly sensitive and high-throughput proteomic techniques can be applied to develop a panel of novel biomarkers for AD. In this review, we discuss the metabolism and diagnostic performance of the well-established core candidate cerebrospinal fl uid(CSF) biomarkers(β-amyloid, total tau, and hyperphosphorylated tau). Meanwhile, novel promising CSF biomarkers, especially those identifi ed by proteomics, updated in the last fi ve years are also extensively discussed. Furthermore, we provide perspectives on how biomarker discovery for AD is evolving.