Kappa/Lambda light-chain typing in Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by memory loss and cognitive impairment. The diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease according to symptomatic events is still a puzzling task. Developing a biomarker-based, low-cost, and high-throughput test, readily applicable in clinical laboratories, dramatically impacts the rapid and reliable detection of the disease.

This study aimed to develop an accurate, sensitive, and reliable screening tool for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease, which can significantly reduce the cost and time of existing methods.

We have employed a MALDI-TOF-MS-based methodology combined with a microaffinity chromatography enrichment approach using affinity capture resins to determine serum kappa (κ) and lambda (λ) light chain levels in control and patients with AD.

We observed a statistically significant difference in the kappa light chain over lambda light chain (κLC/λLC) ratios between patients with AD and controls (mean difference -0,409; % 95 CI:- 0.547 to -0.269; p<0.001). Our method demonstrated higher sensitivity (100.00%) and specificity (71.43%) for discrimination between AD and controls.

We have developed a high-throughput screening test with a novel sample enrichment method for determining κLC/λLC ratios associated with AD diagnosis. Following further validation, we believe our test has the potential for clinical laboratories.