Biomarkers of neurodegenerative disorders: How good are they?

作     者：Varun RACHAKONDA Varun RACHAKONDA1, Tian Hong PAN1, Wei Dong LE2,3,4* 1Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA 2Health Science Center, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences/Shanghai 2nd Medical University, Shanghai, China. 3Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai 2nd Medical University, 197 Ruijin Er Road, Shanghai, China 4Model Organism Division, E-Institutes of Shanghai Universities, Shanghai, China.

作者机构：Department of Neurology Baylor College of Medicine Houston TX USA 

出 版 物：《Cell Research》 (细胞研究(英文版))

年 卷 期：2004年第14卷第5期

页      面：347-358页

核心收录：

学科分类：1002[医学-临床医学] 100204[医学-神经病学] 10[医学] 

基　　金：The writing this review paper was supported by a grant from 100-Talent Project(ChinesAcademyofSciences2002298) Health Sciences Center,Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences(J0041-10402) grant from E-Institutes of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission(NeurogenomicLab,2004) 

主　　题：Alzheimer’s disease Parkinson’s disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Huntington’s disease biomarkers. 

摘      要：Biomarkers are very important indicators of normal and abnormal biological processes. Specific changes in pathologies, biochemistries and genetics can give us comprehensive information regarding the nature of any particular disease. A good biomarker should be precise and reliable, distinguishable between normal and interested disease, and differential between different diseases. It is believed that biomarkers have great potential in predicting chances for diseases, aiding in early diagnosis, and setting standards for the development of new remedies to treat diseases. New technologies have enabled scientists to identify biomarkers of several different neurodegenerative diseases. The followings, for instance, are only a few of the many new biomarkers that have been recently identified: the phosphorylated tau protein and aggregated β-amyloid peptide for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), α-synuclein contained Lewy bodies and altered dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging for Parkinson’s disease (PD), SOD mutations for familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and CAG repeats resulted from Huntington’s gene mutations in Huntington’s disease (HD). This article will focus on the most-recent findings of biomarkers belonging to the four mentioned neurodegenerative diseases.