Altered serum glycomics in Alzheimer disease: a potential blood biomarker?

We investigated whether blood N-glycan changes can be used as a diagnostic biomarker for Alzheimer disease (AD). We used DNA sequencer-assisted, fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis (DSA-FACE) technology to assay N-glycans in sera from 79 autopsy-confirmed dementia patients and 149 healthy controls. One N-glycan (NA2F) was substantially decreased in AD patients but not in controls. Use of NA2F for discriminating AD between dementia patients and healthy controls showed a diagnostic accuracy of 85.7% +/- 2.8% with 92% specificity and 70% sensitivity. The decrease in the level of NA2F in AD patients compared to non-AD patients was more pronounced in females (p < 0.0001) than in males (p < 0.014). Use of NA2F to differentiate female AD from female non-AD patients reached a diagnostic accuracy of 90.7% +/- 4.8 %. Pearson correlation analysis showed that in female dementia patients, serum NA2F levels were significantly correlated with the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) beta-amyloid peptide of 42 amino acids (Abeta(1-42)) and tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 (P-tau(181P)) levels, whereas in male dementia patients serum NA2F levels were significantly correlated only with CSF total tau protein (T-tau) level. Thus, we suggest that the serum N-glycan marker might be suitable for longitudinal and follow-up studies.