Combination of plasma tumor necrosis factor receptors signaling proteins, beta-amyloid and apolipoprotein E for the detection of Alzheimer's disease

• Published in: Neuroscience letters Vol. 541; pp. 99 - 104
• Main Authors: Zhang, Jinbiao, Jia, Jianping, Qin, Wei, Wang, Shuying
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier Ireland Ltd 29.04.2013
• Subjects: ADAM Proteins - metabolism; ADAM17 Protein; Aged; Alzheimer Disease - blood; Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; Alzheimer's disease; Amyloid beta-Peptides - blood; Apolipoprotein E; Apolipoprotein E4 - blood; Apolipoprotein E4 - genetics; Beta-amyloid; Biomarkers - blood; Case-Control Studies; Cognition Disorders - blood; Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; Dementia, Vascular - blood; Dementia, Vascular - diagnosis; Female; Humans; Male; Mutation; Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor - blood; Sensitivity and Specificity; Signal Transduction; Soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor; Tumor necrosis factor converting enzyme; Tumor necrosis factor converting enzyme; Apolipoprotein E; Alzheimer's disease; Soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor; Beta-amyloid
• ISSN: 0304-3940; 1872-7972; 1872-7972
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2013.03.007

•TACE activity and sTNFRs levels were increased in plasma of AD and aMCI patients.•The levels of TACE activity and sTNFRs correlated with Aβ in AD and aMCI patients.•ApoE genotype impacted on the levels of TACE activity and sTNFRs.•Combined TACE activity or sTNFRs, Aβ and APOE may help with the diagnosis of AD. Activation of inflammatory processes has been observed within the brain as well as periphery of subjects with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Among several putative neuroinflammatory mechanisms, the tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) signaling system plays a central role. TNF-α converting enzyme (TACE) does not only cleave pro-TNF-α but also TNF receptors, however, whether the TACE activity and soluble TNF receptors (sTNFRs) were changed in the plasma were not clear. The aim of this study was to determine whether the levels of TACE activity and sTNFRs are sufficiently altered in the plasma of AD patients to be helpful in AD diagnosis. We examined TACE levels in the plasma of 153 patients with AD, 98 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), 53 patients with vascular dementia (VaD), and 120 age-matched healthy control subjects, and found TACE activity and sTNFRs were significantly higher in patients with AD and aMCI compared with control subjects (TACE: P<0.001, P<0.01; sTNFR1: P<0.001, P<0.001; sTNFR2: P<0.001, P<0.01, respectively). The TACE activity and sTNFRs levels in VaD patients were significantly higher than the levels observed in AD patients (TACE activity: P<0.001, sTNFR1: P<0.01, sTNFR2: P<0.01). In the plasma of AD patients, the levels of both TACE activity and sTNFRs positively correlated with the levels of Aβ40 and negatively correlated with the ratio of Aβ42/Aβ40. AD patients with at least one copy of the ApoEε4 allele showed higher TACE activity and sTNFR plasma levels compared with patients without the ApoEε4 allele. We then combined the data on plasma TACE activity, sTNFRs, and Aβ with the presence of the APOEε4 allele and found that this biomarker panel exhibited a high sensitivity and specificity for discriminating AD patients from non-demented control subjects and VaD patients.