Affiliations: [a] Laboratory of Neurosciences and Functional Medicine, International Center for Biomedicine (ICC) and Faculty of Sciences, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
| [b] Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Prof. Ricardo B. Maccioni, MD, PhD, International Center for Biomedicine, Avda. Vitacura
3568, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile. E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract: Background:A major drawback in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the lack of validated biomarkers for routine clinical diagnostic. We have reported earlier a novel blood biomarker, named Alz-tau®, based on variants of platelet tau. This marker evaluates the ratio of high molecular weight tau (HMWtau) and the low molecular weight (LMWtau) tau. Objective:To analyze a potential novel source of antigen for Alz-tau®, plasma tau, detected by immunoreactivity with the novel monoclonal antibody, tau51. Methods:We evaluated tau variants in plasma precipitated with ammonium sulfate from 36 AD patients and 15 control subjects by western blot with this novel monoclonal antibody. Results:The HMW/LMWtau ratio was statistically different between AD patients and controls. Conclusions:Plasma tau variants are suitable to be considered as a novel antigen source for the Alz-tau® biomarker for AD.
Keywords: Alz-tau®, Alzheimer’s disease, HMW/LMWtau ratio, monoclonal antibodies, peripheral biomarkers, tau protein in the human plasma
