Evidence for Elevated Cerebrospinal Fluid ERK1/2 Levels in Alzheimer Dementia.

Spitzer, P., Scheib, H., Kamrowski-Kruck, H, Otto, M., Chiasserini, D., Parnetti, L., Herukka, S.K., Schuchhart, J., Wiltfang, J., Klafki, H.W.

Journal	International Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.	Year	2011
Species	Human	Volume	2011
Analytes Measured	ERK1/2	Page #
Matrix Tested	Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)	Category	Phosphoproteins & Intracellular Markers

Abstract

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from 33 patients with Alzheimer dementia (AD), 21 patients with mild cognitive impairment who converted to AD during followup (MCI-AD), 25 patients with stable mild cognitive impairment (MCI-stable), and 16 nondemented subjects (ND) were analyzed with a chemiluminescence immunoassay to assess the levels of the mitogen-activated protein kinase ERK1/2 (extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2). The results were evaluated in relation to total Tau (tTau), phosphorylated Tau (pTau), and beta-amyloid 42 peptide (Aβ42). CSF-ERK1/2 was significantly increased in the AD group as compared to stable MCI patients and the ND group. Western blot analysis of a pooled cerebrospinal fluid sample revealed that both isoforms, ERK1 and ERK2, and low amounts of doubly phosphorylated ERK2 were detectable. As a predictive diagnostic AD biomarker, CSF-ERK1/2 was inferior to tTau, pTau, and Aβ42.