Nanotechnology for Alzheimer's disease detection

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia among people of age 65 and older. The diagnosis of sporadic AD is based on clinical exclusion criteria and is only definite at necropsy. So, biochemical markers for AD would be of great value for its early diagnosis. During the last decade, research efforts have focused on developing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for AD. The diagnostic performance of the CSF biomarkers: Tau protein, the 42-amino acid form of beta amyloid (A beta 42) and Amyloid Precursor Protein are of great importance. One possible biomarker for Alzheimer's is amyloid beta-derived diffusible ligands (ADDL). The correlation of CSF ADDL levels with disease state offers promise for improved AD diagnosis and early treatment. This is made possible by combining ADDL-specific monoclonal antibodies with an ultrasensitive, nanoparticle-based protein detection strategy termed biobarcode amplification (BCA). This review article explains how this BCA strategy makes clever use of nanoparticles as DNA carriers to improve the sensitivity of detection of Alzheimer's biomarker.