The aim of this study was to investigate potential biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Changes in protein expression in brain tissues from A␤PP/PS1 transgenic mice were evaluated using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis combined with LC-MS/MS. A total of 23 differentially expressed proteins were successfully identified in brain tissues of which 11 were validated by western blot. Then, the levels of these differentially expressed proteins in serum from AD patients and healthy controls were examined. Of these 11 proteins, levels of 5 changed in the same direction in the serum of AD patients as they did in mouse brain: cathepsin B, VDAC1, and cofilin-2 increased, and Alix and ACAP1 decreased. Alix, cofilin-2, and ACAP1 have not been previously associated with AD. More importantly, the serum levels of Alix, cofilin-2, and ACAP1 were significantly different between AD patients and healthy controls. Furthermore, the expressions of cathepsin B, cofilin-2, VDAC1, and ACAP1 strongly correlated with the Mini-Mental State Examination scores of the AD patients. The results indicate that these proteins are putative biomarkers of AD which may be useful in its diagnosis and in the evaluation of new anti-AD drugs both in pre-clinical and clinical studies.

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Our study confirmed the upregulation of NDRG2 in AD animal models and demonstrated its important roles in AD pathology. NDRG2 might be a potential target for studying and treatment of AD.

As one of the world's five terminally ills, tumours can cause important genetic dysfunction. However, some current medicines for tumours usually have strong toxic side effects and are prone to drug resistance. Studies have found that farnesyltransferase inhibitors (FTIs) extracted from natural materials have a good inhibiting ability on tumours with fewer side effects. This article describes several FTIs extracted from natural materials and clarifies the current research progress, which provides a new choice for the treatment of tumours.

The identification of biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an important and urgent area of study, not only to aid in the early diagnosis of AD, but also to evaluate potentially new anti-AD drugs. The aim of this study was to explore cofilin 2 in serum as a novel biomarker for AD. The upregulation was observed in AD patients and different AD animal models compared to the controls, as well as in AD cell models. Memantine and donepezil can attenuate the upregulation of cofilin 2 expression in APP/PS1 mice. The serum levels of cofilin 2 in AD or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients were significantly higher compared to controls (AD: 167.9 ± 35.3 pg/mL; MCI: 115.9 ± 15.4 pg/mL; Control: 90.5 ± 27.1 pg/mL; p < 0.01). A significant correlation between cofilin 2 levels and cognitive decline was observed ( r = –0.792; p < 0.001). The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis showed the area under the curve (AUC) of cofilin 2 was 0.957, and the diagnostic accuracy was 80%, with 93% sensitivity and 87% specificity. The optimal cut-off value was 130.4 pg/ml. Our results indicate the possibility of serum cofilin 2 as a novel and non-invasive biomarker for AD. In addition, the expression of cofilin 2 was found to be significantly increased in AD compared to vascular dementia (VaD), and only an increased trend but not significant was detected in VaD compared to the controls. ROC analysis between AD and VaD showed that the AUC was 0.824, which could indicate a role of cofilin 2 as a biomarker in the differential diagnosis between AD and VaD.