Multiplexed quantification of dementia biomarkers in the CSF of patients with early dementias and MCI: A multicenter study

In this report we evaluated the clinical performance of APOE genotyping and three protein biomarkers (total tau, β-amyloid1–42, and tau phosphorylated at threonine 181) in a prospective multicenter study using the INNO-BIA AlzBio3 assay applied on Luminex platform. Concentration of biomarkers of Alzheimerʹs disease in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was measured with multiplexing technology (n = 223), and compared to the results of ELISA assays in patients with early dementias or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) collected at 12 gerontopsychiatric university departments, and APOE genotyping was performed. Concentrations of Aβ1–42 were statistically significantly lower in MCI-AD subjects compared to MCI-O, and significantly lower in D-AD patients compared to MCI-O. P-tau181P concentrations were significantly higher in MCI-AD patients compared to MCI-O, and significantly higher in D-AD patients compared to MCI-O. The total tau concentrations in MCI-AD patients were significantly higher compared to MCI-O, and higher in D-AD compared to MCI-O, moreover, the concentration of total tau was significantly higher in D-AD compared to MCI-AD patients. For the differential diagnosis between D-AD and D-O, the optimal cutoff concentration of Aβ1–42 was 197.7 pg/mL, and that for P-tau181P was 47.9 pg/mL. These cutoff values were also applied to discriminate between MCI-AD and MCI-O subjects. Simultaneous measurement of the biomarkers significantly improves management of the samples and quality control of the assays’ performance.