Many patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or early Alzheimer’s disease meet clinical criteria for AD but when scanned using PET do not show amyloid pathology (the accumulation of misfolded amyloid proteins in tissues known to cause brain disfunction). In a new paper from the Bio-Hermes Study, led by the Global Alzheimer’s Platform (GAP) in collaboration with partners including IXICO, we explored what blood-based biomarkers can (and can’t) tell us about this important group.
Across nearly 300 cognitively impaired, amyloid-negative participants, neurofilament light (NfL) consistently differentiated impairment from cognitively normal controls—pointing to underlying neurodegeneration even in the absence of amyloid or tau signals. In contrast, a wide range of novel proteomic and inflammatory markers showed limited discriminatory value.
The message is clear: amyloid-negative cognitive impairment is biologically diverse and highly variable, and today’s biomarker toolbox is still incomplete to account for such heterogeneity. That’s why Bio-Hermes 2 is now extending this work with deeper MRI-based and vascular phenotyping to better understand non-amyloid pathways that may drive neurodegeneration and cognitive decline.
It's an exciting area of research and IXICO is proud to be part of this collaborative effort with GAP and Bio-Hermes.
Find out more about this paper here
