A group of researchers at the Neurosciences Institute, Joint Center of the University Miguel Hernández (UMH) in Elche and the National Research Council (CSIC) have described a new diagnostic marker for Alzheimer presenilin-1. This work, entitled “Presenilin Complexes 1 are increased in the cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer’s disease”, is led by a researcher at the UMH Javier Sáez Valero and has been published in the first issue of the new online edition of the journal Acta neuropathologica Communications.

The presenilin-1 is a protein involved in the development and progression of Alzheimer, but to date had not been shown to be present in the cerebrospinal fluid. This work demonstrates that presenilin-1 is in the form of complexes in human cerebrospinal fluid and mice, and the amounts and properties of these complexes vary with Alzheimer’s disease progression. Currently, there is a continuous search for new biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid for the clinical diagnosis of neurological diseases and to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease in its early stages.

Given that inhibition of presenilin and the complex gamma-secretase, which is part, are current therapeutic targets in the development of new drugs for Alzheimer’s, the study’s authors, Javier Sáez Valero and Maria Salud Garcia Ayllon, shown “hopeful” that this new marker be useful in clinical trials with these new drugs.

The research group of professor Javier Sáez Valero UMH also belongs to the Center of Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), an initiative of the Health Institute Carlos III to improve the fight against neurodegenerative diseases and neurological disorders.

This work has the support of different members of the team of UMH professor Javier Sáez, Maria Letizia Campanari and the doctors of Neurology Research Unit, Hospital General Universitario de Elche Maria Salud Garcia Ayllón and Jordi Alom. Also with the collaboration of the doctor of the Institute of Neuroscience of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Carlos A. Saura and responsible of the Tissue Bank CIEN Alberto Rábano Foundation. Internationally, Doctors of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry of the University of Gothenburg, Gunnar Brinkmalm and Kaj Blennow, and Dr. Niels Andreasen of Desease Research Center of Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden’s leading centers of research in Alzheimer Niels Andreasen, have also collaborated in this study.