Neuroscience Biomarkers



Dementia as a Neuropsychiatric Disorder3

Biomarkers3

Part II5

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Techniques5

Blood Oxygen Level Dependant (BOLD) Signals in MRI6

Suitability of the Technique in relation to neurological disorder6

Biomarker7

The Concept of a Biomarker7

Analysis of biomarker association with the disease7

Clinical Significance of the Biomarker9

References10

Neuroscience Biomarkers

Dementia as a Neuropsychiatric Disorder

Dementia is a serious progressive or chronic brain disease with turbulence in the higher multiple cortical functioning, and characterized by a massive loss of global cognitive ability in the case of a disabled person, superseding what might be expected from the normal ageing. It may also be static with the onset of a global brain injury as well as being progressive that results in a long term decline due to damage or disease in the body. Dementia is considered to be quite common in the context of a geriatric population while it can also arise before the age of 65. In such a situation, dementia is termed as early onset dementia. In dementia the consciousness is not impaired, but the cognitive functional impairment is escorted through the worsening in the motivational, emotional and social behavioral control.

Dementia is not a concentrated disease. Rather, it is mental condition characterized by a non specific syndrome consisting of a set of signs and symptoms. The affected cognitive areas in the case of Dementia due to ongoing brain cells death followed by the progressive functional impairment can be attention, language, memory and problem solving. With the onset of dementia, the affected individual has significant impairment in thinking and rationalizing.

Biomarkers

The role of Alzheimer's disease is quite prominent in the case of dementia since it is considered to be one of the major forms of dementia. In the current treatment mechanisms, the diagnosis pertaining to AD is excluded from other types of disabilities with the effective diagnosis requiring autopsy confirmation.

The Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers can determined in the CSF and the blood through the “proteome” which explains the complete proteins accompaniment prearranged by genomes in an organism and show gene assembly within the biological systems. The different biomarkers in the case of Alzheimer's have been known to be highly effective i.e. amyloidal peptides, tau etc, since they help in the early identification and resultantly the early diagnosis of the disease. The detection of the soluble amyloidal precursor proteins alpha and beta are considered as the significant biomarkers in the AD clinical diagnosis and can determined through the use of two main approaches. The one is measurement of the “Total tau proteins or amyloidal beta protein” CSF concentrations. Another approach is to measurement of only suspected pathogenic biomarkers includes “cleaved or phosphorylated tau proteins or (ADDLs) amyloidal beta derived diffusible ligands”.

These biomarkers increase the diagnostic chances of the AD and MCI, which is a prodromal AD. These early diagnosis and screening can be achieved through the detection of a) presence of the amyloidal pathology through the PiB PET or the CSF A-beta. b) Presence of the damaged brain cells through the determination of the MRI brain shrinkage, CSF taus and ...