Assay for differentiating Alzheimer's and Alzheimer's-like disorders
The invention relates to an assay for discriminating between Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, patients with AD-Like disorders that express symptoms like AD, and non-demented age-matched controls (Normal). The method is based on the use of 2-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis to separate the complex mixture of proteins found in blood serum, the quantitation of a group of identified biomarkers, and the biostatistical analysis of the concentration of the identified biomarkers to differentiate patients having AD from Normals and patients having other AD-Like disorders.
1 . An assay for selecting appropriate biomarkers useful in diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) comprising:
a) collecting serum samples from patients with AD;
b) collecting serum samples from patients with an AD-Like disorder;
c) performing a two-dimensional gel electrophoretic analysis of the serum sample;
d) staining the two-dimensional gel;
e) quantitating a protein concentration in a plurality of protein spots on the two-dimensional gel; and
f) performing a statistical analysis on the quantities of the proteins in the protein spots to select a biomarker spot to distinguish between patient with AD from patients with the AD-Like disorder and normal controls.
2 . A screening assay for Alzheimer's disease (AD) comprising:
a) collecting a serum sample from a patient;
b) performing a two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoretic analysis of the serum sample;
c) staining the 2D gel pattern;
d) quantitating a set of preselected protein spots; and
e) performing a statistical analysis on the quantity of the selected spots to determine the Likelihood of the patient having AD.
3 . An assay for differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) comprising:
a) collecting a serum sample from a patient;
b) performing a two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoretic analysis of the serum sample;
c) staining the 2D gel pattern;
d) quantitating a set of preselected protein spots; and
e) performing a statistical analysis on the quantity of the selected spots to determine the Likelihood of the patient having AD as opposed to an AD-Like condition.