Amyloid- Oligomers Are Inefficiently Measured by Enzyme-Linked Assay

Amyloid- (A) peptide levels are widely measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in Alzheimer’s disease research. Here, we show that oligomerization of A results in underestimated A ELISA levels. The implications are that comprehensive analysis of soluble A requires either sample pretreatment at denaturing conditions or novel conformation-dependent immunoassays. Our findings might be of relevance for many neurodegenerative disorders in which soluble protein aggregates are the main neurotoxic species.