Background: The profile of naturally occurring antibodies to amyloid-β (NAbs-Aβ) is altered in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the diagnostic potential of NAbs-Aβ for AD is not clear yet.
Objective: This study aims to investigate the diagnostic capacities of NAbs-Aβ for AD.
Methods: A total of 40 AD patients and 40 cognitively normal (CN) controls were enrolled in this study. Levels of NAbs-Aβ were detected by ELISA. The correlations of NAbs-Aβ levels with cognitive function and AD-associated biomarkers were examined by Spearman correlation analysis. Diagnostic abilities of NAbs-Aβ were evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses. The integrative diagnostic models were established by logistic regression models.
Results: We found that NAbs-Aβ7-18 had the highest diagnostic capability (AUC = 0.72) among all single NAbs-Aβ. The combined model (NAbs-Aβ7-18, NAbs-Aβ19-30, and NAbs-Aβ25-36) had a noticeable improvement (AUC = 0.84) in the diagnostic capacity compared with each single NAbs-Aβ.
Conclusion: NAbs-Aβs are promising in the diagnosis of AD. Further investigations are needed to confirm the translational potential of this diagnostic strategy.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; amyloid-β; autoantibodies; biomarkers; diagnosis.