En route to early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease – are we there yet?

As therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) become available, it will become increasingly important to develop accurate and reliable tools for its early diagnosis. A recent paper by Georganopoulou et al. suggests that nanobiotechnology could help to overcome the limitations with the current diagnostic methods. The paper introduces a nanoparticle-based assay using antibodies that are specific for amyloid b-protein (Ab) oligomers with sub-femtomolar sensitivity. This assay appears to be more specific for AD than previous ELISAbased work and, if specificity of the assay for Ab oligomers can be established, the method developed might provide a sensitive, reliable diagnostic tool for AD.