It has long been known the association between the existence of certain neuronal proteins in the brain (tau and amyloid precursor plaques) and the development of Alzheimer dementia.  Virtually all Alzheimer brains at biopsy not only confirm these findings but also the role which cerebrospinal fluid protein apoE plays in the development of those abnormal findings in Alzheimer disease.  

This led to the once-controversial possibility that those persons who possessed the allele which codes for apoE would eventually succumb to the debilitating disease — a finding later refuted by the presence of the gene in normal subjects without Alzheimer dementia.  New research builds upon all of these factors for the purpose of drug development in treating patients with the disorder in the name of biomarker identification. And…it is exciting:

Investigators determined that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of apolipoprotein E (apoE), one of the most important proteins involved in transfer of fatty substances between different brain cells, are highly correlated with the levels of proteins known to be involved in development of Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid precursor protein (APP) and tau. While many studies have previously shown that apoE gene is very important for Alzheimer’s disease development, the connection between apoE protein and other relevant CSF markers in healthy adults was not known.

Although this type of study cannot establish causal associations, the results strongly suggest that the CSF levels of apoE may explain a significant proportion of the levels of APP- and tau-related biological markers in the healthy human brain, indicating a strong physiological link between apoE, APP and tau. In other words, the study points to a possibility that modulation of the levels of apoE may affect the levels of APP and tau in the brain.

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