Cited by 328Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsDementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchNeuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research

The clinical promise of biomarkers of synapse damage or loss in Alzheimer’s disease

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the Synaptic Health Endpoints Working Group, Colom-Cadena, Martí, Spires-Jones, Tara, Zetterberg, Henrik, Blennow, Kaj, Caggiano, Anthony, DeKosky, Steven T., Fillit, Howard +8 more·2020·Alzheimer's Research & Therapy

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Synapse damage and loss are fundamental to the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and lead to reduced cognitive function. The goal of this review is to address the challenges of forging new clinical development approaches for AD therapeutics that can demonstrate reduction of synapse damage or loss. The key points of this review include the following: Synapse loss is a downstream effect of amyloidosis, tauopathy, inflammation, and other mechanisms occurring in AD.Synapse loss correlates most strongly with cognitive decline in AD because synaptic function underlies cognitive performance.Compounds that halt or reduce synapse damage or loss have a strong rationale as treatments of AD.Biomarkers that measure synapse degeneration or loss in patients will facilitate clinical development of such drugs.The ability of methods to sensitively measure synapse density in the brain of a living patient through synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, concentrations of synaptic proteins (e.g., neurogranin or synaptotagmin) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), or functional imaging techniques such as quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) provides a compelling case to use these types of measurements as biomarkers that quantify synapse damage or loss in clinical trials in AD. CONCLUSION: A number of emerging biomarkers are able to measure synapse injury and loss in the brain and may correlate with cognitive function in AD. These biomarkers hold promise both for use in diagnostics and in the measurement of therapeutic successes.

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  1. [9]y Cajal SR Histology of the nervous system of man and vertebrates, volume 1 1995 New York Oxford University Press
  2. [10]Hebb D The organization of behavior: a neuropsychological theory [Internet] 1949 New York Wiley
  3. [87]Tai HC Wang BY Serrano-Pozo A Frosch MP Spires-Jones TL Hyman BT Frequent and symmetric deposition of misfolded tau oligomers within presynaptic and postsynaptic terminals in Alzheimer’s disease Acta Neuropathol Commun 2014 2 1 1 14 10.1186/2051-5960-2-1 25330988 PMC4209049 · DOI
  4. [115]Davidsson P Jahn R Bergquist J Ekman R Blennow K Synaptotagmin, a synaptic vesicle protein, is present in human cerebrospinal fluid: a new biochemical marker for synaptic pathology in Alzheimer disease? Mol Chem Neuropathol 1996 27 2 195 210 10.1007/BF02815094 8962603 · DOI
  5. [136]Schomer DL da Silva FL Niedermeyer’s electroencephalography. Basic principles, clinical applications, and related fields 2010 6 Philadelphia Lippincott Wiliams & Wilkins

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Authors
the Synaptic Health Endpoints Working Group, Colom-Cadena, M., Spires-Jones, T., Zetterberg, H., Blennow, K., Caggiano, A., DeKosky, S. T., Fillit, H., Harrison, J. E., Schneider, L. S., Scheltens, P., de Haan, W., Grundman, M., van Dyck, C. H., Izzo, N. J., & Catalano, S. M.
Affiliations
  • UK Dementia Research Institute (GB)
  • Sahlgrenska University Hospital (SE)
  • University of Florida (US)
  • Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (US)
  • University of Southern California (US)
  • Yale University (US)
  • Cognition Therapeutics (United States) (US)
Corresponding author
Catalano, Susan M.
Venue
Alzheimer's Research & Therapy
Published
2020-03-02
Volume
12
Issue
1
Pages
21-21
ISSN
1758-9193 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3011252852
Cited by
328
References
154
Citations by year
2026: 24 · 2025: 47 · 2024: 56 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 73 · 2021: 45 · 2020: 26
FWCI
6.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Alzheimer s Research & Therapy (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Pure Amsterdam UMC (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Amsterdam UMC (VU Amsterdam) - Institutional Repository (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Amgen
  • Biogen
  • National Institutes of Health (UL1TR001863)
  • Genentech
  • Medical Research Council (MR/V00610X/1)
  • National Institute on Aging (R01AG062276, P30AG066508, P30AG066530)
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, synaptic loss, synaptic damage, biomarkers, SV2A, neurogranin, synaptotagmin, cerebrospinal fluid, quantitative EEG, amyloidosis, tauopathy, neuroinflammation, cognitive decline, clinical trial endpoints, drug development
MeSH terms
Alzheimer Disease, Electroencephalography, Humans, Synapses, Biomarkers, Positron-Emission Tomography, Functional Neuroimaging

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