Increased levels of soluble LR11 in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer disease

Abstract

Background: Recent genetic and pathological studies have suggested that a lipoprotein receptor, LR11, is intricately implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease (AD). We have recently established a novel sandwich ELISA, which enabled the sensitive quantification of a soluble LR11 (sLR11). By this ELISA, we attempted to determine the difference in the levels of CSF sLR11 in AD patients.

Methods: We examined CSF from 29 AD patients, 20 frontotemporal lobar degeneration patients and 27 age-matched control subjects. The CSF sLR11 level as well as the levels of tau and beta-amyloid42 (Abeta42) were determined by sandwich ELISA.

Results: The CSF tau level and tau/Abeta42 ratio were significantly increased (p < 0.01) in the AD patients. The CSF sLR11 level in the AD patients was significantly higher (p < 0.01) than that of the frontotemporal lobar degeneration patients and the controls. The APOE-epsilon4-positive AD patients have higher sLR11 levels than the APOE-epsilon4-negative patients (p < 0.01).

Conclusions: These results suggest that the quantification of CSF sLR11 may serve as a biomarker of AD, although the diagnostic value for individual patients is limited. An elevated CSF sLR11 level in AD patients may be relevant to AD pathogenesis.