Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 6, 2025
Author Spotlight: Exploring Sex-Specific Glial Signatures and Therapeutic Leads for Alzheimer's Disease
Published on: May 20, 2024
Astrocyte Biomarkers in Alzheimer Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Bruna Bellaver1, João Pedro Ferrari-Souza1, Lucas Uglione da Ros1
1From the Graduate Program in Biological Sciences: Biochemistry (B.B., J.P.F.-S., L.U.d.R., E.R.Z.), Department of Pharmacology (E.R.Z.), and Graduate Program in Biological Sciences: Pharmacology and Therapeutics (E.R.Z.), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; Department of Psychiatry (S.F.C.), University of Cambridge; Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre (S.F.C.), University of Manchester, UK; Department of Neurobiology (E.R.-V, A.N.), Care Sciences and Society, Center for Alzheimer Research, Karolinska Institutet (E.R.-V, A.N.); Theme Aging (A.N.), Karolinska University Hospital Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden; Inserm U1082 (L.P.), Université de Poitiers, France; Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory (P.R.-N.), McGill University Research Centre for Studies in Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Research Unit, Douglas Research Institute, Le Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux (CIUSSS) de l'Ouest-de-l'Île-de-Montréal; McGill University (P.R.-N.), Montreal, Quebec, Canada; and ADHD Outpatient Program & Development Psychiatry Program (D.T.L.), Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Objective:
To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine whether fluid and imaging astrocyte biomarkers are altered in Alzheimer disease (AD).
Methods:
PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched for articles reporting fluid or imaging astrocyte biomarkers in AD. Pooled effect sizes were determined with standardized mean differences (SMDs) using the Hedge G method with random effects to determine biomarker performance. Adapted questions from the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies were applied for quality assessment. A protocol for this study has been previously registered in PROSPERO (registration number: CRD42020192304).
Results:
The initial search identified 1,425 articles. After exclusion criteria were applied, 33 articles (a total of 3,204 individuals) measuring levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), S100B, chitinase-3-like protein 1 (YKL-40), and aquaporin 4 in the blood and CSF, as well as monoamine oxidase-B indexed by PET 11C-deuterium-l-deprenyl, were included. GFAP (SMD 0.94, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.71-1.18) and YKL-40 (SMD 0.76, 95% CI 0.63-0.89) levels in the CSF and S100B levels in the blood (SMD 2.91, 95% CI 1.01-4.8) were found to be significantly increased in patients with AD.
Conclusions:
Despite significant progress, applications of astrocyte biomarkers in AD remain in their early days. This meta-analysis demonstrated that astrocyte biomarkers are consistently altered in AD and supports further investigation for their inclusion in the AD clinical research framework for observational and interventional studies.
More Related Videos
07:08A High Throughput, Multiplexed and Targeted Proteomic CSF Assay to Quantify Neurodegenerative Biomarkers and Apolipoprotein E Isoforms Status
Published on: October 20, 2016
12:48In Vivo Dynamics of Retinal Microglial Activation During Neurodegeneration: Confocal Ophthalmoscopic Imaging and Cell Morphometry in Mouse Glaucoma
Published on: May 11, 2015
Related Concept Videos
01:26Alzheimer's Disease: Overview
The clinical diagnosis of AD hinges on the presence of memory and other cognitive impairments. Biomarkers, such as changes in Aβ...
01:22Alzheimer's Disease: Treatment