Dos Santos Gustavo Alves Andrade, do Vale Francisco de Assis Carvalho, Fazan Valeria Paula Sassoli
Universidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Departamento de Anatomia e Cirurgia, Ribeirão Preto SP, Brazil.
Faculdade São Leopoldo Mandic de Araras, Faculdade de Medicina, Departamento de Medicina, Araras SP, Brazil.
Dement Neuropsychol. 2025 Apr 28;19:e20240253. doi: 10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2024-0253. eCollection 2025.
Although recognized as one of the most critical and prevalent dementias, Alzheimer's disease (AD) still does not have an affirmative biological marker, being diagnosed by excluding other pathologies that present similar symptoms. In the last decade, advances have been made in researching pathophysiological phenomena related to AD, with the identification of probable biomarkers. Some of these substances have a direct action on the degenerative activity that involves AD and may be associated with other pathological processes, such as inflammation and diabetes.
These occurrences led us to investigate further whether the levels of certain substances may be associated with the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease. Biomarkers can be found in plasma, saliva and cerebrospinal fluid.
This project investigated tau protein as a possible salivary biomarker in 76 patients, control group and Alzheimer's, with different age groups, to establish a positive correlation between the studied biomarker and AD.
Our findings showed that phosphorylated tau (pTAU) concentrations are higher in AD patients and somewhat lower in elderly patients without Alzheimer's, but in young patients without Alzheimer's the levels are much lower. Total tau had very similar levels in three groups evaluated.
Based on these results, we believe in the possibility of using saliva as an auxiliary method in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease, with the advantages of low cost, non-invasiveness, and ease of collection. Still, more investigations will be needed to confirm this method presented.
尽管阿尔茨海默病（AD）被公认为是最严重且最常见的痴呆症之一，但它仍然没有一个确定的生物学标志物，目前是通过排除其他具有相似症状的病症来进行诊断。在过去十年中，与AD相关的病理生理现象研究取得了进展，发现了一些可能的生物标志物。其中一些物质对涉及AD的退行性活动有直接作用，并且可能与其他病理过程相关，如炎症和糖尿病。
这些情况促使我们进一步研究某些物质的水平是否可能与阿尔茨海默病的发病和进展有关。生物标志物可以在血浆、唾液和脑脊液中找到。
本项目在76名不同年龄组的患者（对照组和阿尔茨海默病患者）中研究tau蛋白作为一种可能的唾液生物标志物，以确定所研究的生物标志物与AD之间的正相关关系。
我们的研究结果表明，AD患者中磷酸化tau（pTAU）浓度较高，无阿尔茨海默病的老年患者中浓度略低，但无阿尔茨海默病的年轻患者中浓度要低得多。在评估的三组中，总tau水平非常相似。
基于这些结果，我们认为有可能将唾液作为诊断阿尔茨海默病的辅助方法，其具有低成本、非侵入性和易于采集的优点。不过，仍需要更多研究来证实所提出的这种方法。
