Plasma biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease as pre-screening tools

Nicholas Ashton, PhD, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Mölndal, Sweden and King’s College London, London, UK, discusses how plasma biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease can adequately replace cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers at the clinical stages of the disease when CSF is not available. However, these should be used in tandem with CSF lumbar punctures and amyloid PET scans. At a pre-screening level, although not as accurate and with larger confidence intervals, plasma biomarkers can provide more information than basic demographics. Utilizing fluid biomarkers as pre-screening tools, can reduce PET scan costs and the number of invasive CSF lumbar punctures in trial stages. They can also be used to track patients over time as an intermediate procedure between PET scans. This interview took place at the AD/PD 2022 International Conference on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases hosted in Barcelona, Spain.