AUTHOR=Zhang Nan , Gu Dongmei , Meng Meng , Gordon Marc L. 

TITLE=TDP-43 Is Elevated in Plasma Neuronal-Derived Exosomes of Patients With Alzheimer’s Disease

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2020.00166

DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2020.00166

ISSN=1663-4365

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p>Recently, TDP-43 has been recognized as a common proteinopathy in the “oldest old” and a neuropathological comorbidity in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, since it has a low concentration in cerebrospinal fluid, the presence of TDP-43 in AD is rarely investigated <italic>in vivo</italic>.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>Twenty-four patients with amyloid PET confirmed AD and 15 healthy controls (HCs) were included in this study. TDP-43 level in plasma neuronal-derived exosomes (NDEs) was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>TDP-43 level was elevated in patients with AD compared with HCs (median 1.08 ng/ml, IQR 0.72–1.37 ng/ml vs. median 0.66 ng/ml, IQR 0.48–0.76 ng/ml, <italic>P</italic> = 0.002). There was no correlation between TDP-43 level and cognitive function, neuropsychiatric symptoms or APOE genotype in patients with AD.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>This study demonstrated increased TDP-43 accumulation in AD patients by examining plasma NDEs, which may provide a window into the effects of TDP-43 on AD progression.</p></sec>