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Personalized Medicine in Neurodegenerative Diseases: How Far Away?

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Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by progressive dysfunction of the nervous system as a result of neuronal loss in the brain and spinal cord. Despite extensive research efforts aimed at development of new disease-modifying therapeutics, there is still no effective treatment to halt neurodegenerative processes. Thus, modification of current therapeutic and diagnostic research strategies is a goal of increasing urgency. The biggest limitation in neurodegenerative disease research is the lack of appropriate biomarkers. Discovery of universal biomarkers capable of diagnosing patients with neurodegenerative diseases, monitoring their response to therapy, and predicting disease progression seems to be a tall order. Instead, a combination of different methodologies in the discovery of biomarkers specific for each described aspect of the disease seems to be a more viable approach. Although application of personalized medicine in diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases may seem far off, some recent developments, such as utilizing specific biological therapies in multiple sclerosis, microRNA profiling as a source of novel biomarkers in Parkinson’s disease, or combination of neuroimaging and proteomic analyses in diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease patients, already point to the way clinical neurology may integrate new achievements in everyday practice. Combination of genomic, proteomic, glycomic, and metabolomic approaches may yield novel insights into molecular mechanisms of disease pathophysiology, which could then be integrated and translated into clinical neurology. Based on the developments during the past decade, it is feasible to predict that a personalized approach to treating neurological disorders will become more widely applicable in the coming years.

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Acknowledgments and Disclosures

No sources of funding were used to prepare this manuscript. The authors have no conflicts of interest that are directly relevant to the content of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department for Functional Genomics, Center for Translational and Clinical Research, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Kristina Gotovac & Fran Borovečki

  2. Department of Neurology, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Sanja Hajnšek, Marija Bošnjak Pašić & Fran Borovečki

  3. Division of Molecular Medicine, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Bijenicka 54, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Nela Pivac

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  1. Kristina Gotovac
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  2. Sanja Hajnšek
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  3. Marija Bošnjak Pašić
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  5. Fran Borovečki
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Correspondence to Kristina Gotovac.

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Gotovac, K., Hajnšek, S., Pašić, M.B. et al. Personalized Medicine in Neurodegenerative Diseases: How Far Away?. Mol Diagn Ther 18, 17–24 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40291-013-0058-z

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