Introduction
A great challenge regarding diagnosis of neurologic diseases today is the lack of stable and validated biomarkers that can reliably detect disease pathology early enough to provide a window for preventative treatment. Likewise, there are few validated biomarkers that can reliably detect changes in the brain as a result of interventions. Even though blood biomarkers have shown some promise, there are great variabilities between different studies related to experimental conditions and the size of the cohort tested. In the current article, we discuss pros and cons of existing blood biomarkers, as well as introduce a new methodology that may revolutionize the biomarker field.
Biomarkers, including blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), or imaging techniques, have been used to simplify the diagnosis of neurologic diseases during the last couple of decades. They can be classified into several categories, depending on whether they address predictive susceptibility, diagnosis, prognosis, or response to treatment in the clinical course of the disease. The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) recently published updated guidelines for pre-analytical handling of samples, biobanking, analysis, and interpretation of the results for fluid biomarkers for dementia.1
There are similar considerations for other neurologic diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The WFSBP concluded that novel methods for blood analysis, including ultrasensitive biomarker measurements, have revolutionized the field, but large variability
