Proteomic Profile for Incident Alzheimer’s Disease in Down Syndrome

People with Down syndrome have a high risk for developing Alzheimer's. By age 40, the majority of people with Down syndrome have a build-up of amyloid plaques and tau tangles in their brains, the two main hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. Detecting and diagnosing the early clinical symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in people with Down syndrome is challenging due to variable levels of intellectual disability. A non-invasive blood test for Alzheimer's could help in the early diagnosis of dementia and allow for future preventative treatments to be administered to those at risk for developing the disease. Nicole Schupf, Ph.D., M.P.H., and colleagues recently examined the'proteomic profile'; – or information about all of the proteins in the blood in a small group of people with Down syndrome. The results showed that this proteomic profile was able to accurately detect and differentiate the participants with Alzheimer's from those without the disease. The researchers hypothesize that the proteomic profile could be used as a'biomarker'; signature to help identify who may be at risk for developing Alzheimer's. Biomarkers are factors that can be used to accurately and reliably indicate the risk or presence of a disease.