Advances in Blood Biomarkers and Diagnosis Approaches for Neurodegenerative Dementias and Related Diseases.

Abstract

Neurodegenerative dementias and related diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and Parkinson's disease have no fundamental cure yet. Degenerative proteins begin to accumulate before the onset of the symptoms of these diseases, and the early detection of these symptoms can lead to early therapeutic intervention. Therefore, early and simpler diagnostic methods are required. This review focuses on blood biomarkers, which are less expensive and easier to use than cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and diagnostic imaging. A variety of approaches exist for establishing diagnostic methods for neurodegenerative dementias using blood biomarkers, such as disease differentiation using a single molecule, methods that combine multiple biomarkers, studies that search for important markers by comprehensively analyzing many molecules, and methods that combine other data. Finally, we discuss the future prospects for blood biomarker research based on the characteristics of each approach.