Skip to main content
Log in

Can We Use Blood Biomarkers as Entry Criteria and for Monitoring Drug Treatment Effects in Clinical Trials? A Report from the EU/US CTAD Task Force

  • CTAD Task Force Paper
  • Published:
The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In randomized clinical trials (RCTs) for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and positron emission tomography (PET) biomarkers are currently used for the detection and monitoring of AD pathological features. The use of less resource-intensive plasma biomarkers could decrease the burden to study volunteers and limit costs and time for study enrollment. Blood-based markers (BBMs) could thus play an important role in improving the design and the conduct of RCTs on AD. It remains to be determined if the data available on BBMs are strong enough to replace CSF and PET biomarkers as entry criteria and monitoring tools in RCTs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Teunissen CE, Verberk IMW, Thijssen EH, et al. Blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease: towards clinical implementation. Lancet Neurol. 2022;21(1):66–77. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(21)00361-6

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Hansson, O. Biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases. Nat Med 27, 954–963 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01382-x

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Angioni D, Delrieu J, Hansson O, et al. Blood Biomarkers from Research Use to Clinical Practice: What Must Be Done? A Report from the EU/US CTAD Task Force. J Prev Alzheimers Dis. 2022;9(4):569–579. doi:https://doi.org/10.14283/jpad.2022.85

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Van Dyck CH, Swanson CJ, Aisen P, Bateman RJ, Chen C, Gee M et al. Lecanemab in early Alzheimer’s disease. NEJM 2022; published on line Nov 29th doi https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2212948.

  5. Hansson O, Edelmayer RM, Boxer AL, et al. The Alzheimer’s Association appropriate use recommendations for blood biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimers Dement. 2022;18(12):2669–2686. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12756

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Schindler SE, Li Y, Li M, et al. Using Alzheimer’s disease blood tests to accelerate clinical trial enrollment [published online ahead of print, 2022 Aug 7]. Alzheimers Dement. 2022;https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12754. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12754

  7. Paul Solomon, et al. Symposium 2 Presentation 2; Abstract: Symposia, Conferences, Oral communications: 14th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) November 9–12, 2021. J Prev Alzheimers Dis. 2021;8(S1):S2–S72. doi:https://doi.org/10.14283/jpad.2021.57

    Google Scholar 

  8. TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 data, presented at 14th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) November 9–12, 2021.

  9. Triana-Baltze et al. Oral communication 4; Abstract: 15th Conference Clinical Trials Alzheimer’s Disease, November 29–December 2, 2022, San Francisco, USA: Symposia - Oral Communications - Late Breaking News. J Prev Alzheimers Dis. 2022;9(S1):S8–S50. doi: https://doi.org/10.14283/jpad.2022.96. PMID: 36471007; PMCID: PMC9734311.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Janelidze S, Bali D, Ashton NJ, Barthélemy NR, Vanbrabant J, Stoops E, Vanmechelen E, He Y, Dolado AO, Triana-Baltzer G, Pontecorvo MJ, Zetterberg H, Kolb H, Vandijck M, Blennow K, Bateman RJ, Hansson O. Head-to-head comparison of 10 plasma phospho-tau assays in prodromal Alzheimer’s disease. Brain. 2022 Sep 10:awac333. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac333. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36087307

    Google Scholar 

  11. Groot C, Cicognola C, Bali D, Triana-Baltzer G, Dage JL, Pontecorvo MJ, Kolb HC, Ossenkoppele R, Janelidze S, Hansson O. Diagnostic and prognostic performance to detect Alzheimer’s disease and clinical progression of a novel assay for plasma p-tau217. Alzheimers Res Ther. 2022 May 14;14(1):67. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-022-01005-8. Erratum in: Alzheimers Res Ther. 2022 Jun 13;14(1):82. PMID: 35568889; PMCID: PMC9107269.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Ashton NJ, Puig-Pijoan A, Milà-Alomà M, et al. Plasma and CSF biomarkers in a memory clinic: Head-to-head comparison of phosphorylated tau immunoassays [published online ahead of print, 2022 Nov 12]. Alzheimers Dement. 2022;https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12841. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12841

  13. Therriault J, Vermeiren M, Servaes S, et al. Association of Phosphorylated Tau Biomarkers With Amyloid Positron Emission Tomography vs Tau Positron Emission Tomography. JAMA Neurol. 2023;80(2):188–199. doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.4485

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. M. Mintun. Can we use blood biomarkers instead of PET as entry criteria for Alzheimer’s Trials: Point of View from Pharma industry. CTAD Task force. November 29, 2022.

  15. Rafii MS, Sperling RA, Donohue MC, et al. The AHEAD 3–45 Study: Design of a prevention trial for Alzheimer’s disease [published online ahead of print, 2022 Aug 15]. Alzheimers Dement. 2022;https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12748. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12748

  16. INVOKE-2 data presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), July 26–30 2021.

  17. Hu Y, Kirmess KM, Meyer MR, Rabinovici GD, Gatsonis C, Siegel BA, et al. Assessment of a Plasma Amyloid Probability Score to Estimate Amyloid Positron Emission Tomography Findings Among Adults With Cognitive Impairment. JAMA Netw Open. 2022. Apr 1;5(4):e228392.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Tariot et Symposium 2 Presentation 3; Abstract: Symposia, Conferences, Oral communications: 14th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) November 9–12, 2021. J Prev Alzheimers Dis. 2021;8(S1):S2-S72. doi:https://doi.org/10.14283/jpad.2021.57

  19. Blennow K, de Leon MJ, Zetterberg H. Alzheimer’s disease. Lancet. 2006;368:387–403. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69113-7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Jack CR,Jr, Knopman DS, Jagust WJ, Petersen RC, Weiner MW, Aisen PS, et al. Tracking pathophysiological processes in Alzheimer’s disease: an updated hypothetical model of dynamic biomarkers. Lancet Neurol. 2013;12:207–216. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(12)70291-0

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  21. Salvadó G, Ossenkoppele R, Ashton NJ, et al. Specific associations between plasma biomarkers and postmortem amyloid plaque and tau tangle loads [published online ahead of print, 2023 Mar 13]. EMBO Mol Med. 2023;e2463. doi:https://doi.org/10.15252/emmm.202217123

  22. Palmqvist S, Janelidze S, Quiroz YT, et al. Discriminative Accuracy of Plasma Phospho-tau217 for Alzheimer Disease vs Other Neurodegenerative Disorders. JAMA. 2020;324(8):772–781. doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.12134

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Janelidze S, Mattsson N, Palmqvist S, et al. Plasma P-tau181 in Alzheimer’s disease: relationship to other biomarkers, differential diagnosis, neuropathology and longitudinal progression to Alzheimer’s dementia. Nat Med. 2020;26(3):379–386. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0755-1

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Thijssen EH, La Joie R, Wolf A, et al. Diagnostic value of plasma phosphorylated tau181 in Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Nat Med. 2020;26(3):387–397. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0762-2

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  25. Grothe MJ, Moscoso A, Ashton NJ, et al. Associations of Fully Automated CSF and Novel Plasma Biomarkers With Alzheimer Disease Neuropathology at Autopsy [published online ahead of print, 2021 Jul 15]. Neurology. 2021;97(12):e1229–e1242. doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000012513

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Lantero Rodriguez J, Karikari TK, Suárez-Calvet M, et al. Plasma p-tau181 accurately predicts Alzheimer’s disease pathology at least 8 years prior to post-mortem and improves the clinical characterisation of cognitive decline. Acta Neuropathol. 2020;140(3):267–278. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00401-020-02195-x

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  27. Janelidze S, Teunissen CE, Zetterberg H, et al. Head-to-Head Comparison of 8 Plasma Amyloid-β 42/40 Assays in Alzheimer Disease. JAMA Neurol. 2021;78(11):1375–1382. doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2021.3180

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Li, Yan, Suzanne E. Schindler, James G. Bollinger, Vitaliy Ovod, Kwasi G. Mawuenyega, Michael W. Weiner, Leslie M. Shaw, et al. “Validation of Plasma Amyloid-β 42/40 for Detecting Alzheimer Disease Amyloid Plaques.” Neurology 98, no. 7 (February 15, 2022): e688–99. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000013211.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Cullen NC, Janelidze S, Mattsson-Carlgren N, Palmqvist S, Bittner T, Suridjan I, et al. Test-retest variability of plasma biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease and its effects on clinical prediction models. Alzheimers Dement. 2022. Jun 14

  30. Brand, Abby L., Paige E. Lawler, James G. Bollinger, Yan Li, Suzanne E. Schindler, Melody Li, Samir Lopez, et al. “The Performance of Plasma Amyloid Beta Measurements in Identifying Amyloid Plaques in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Literature Review.” Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy 14, no. 1 (December 27, 2022): 195. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-022-01117-1.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Rabe, C, Bittner, T, Jethwa, A, et al. Clinical performance and robustness evaluation of plasma amyloid-β42/40 prescreening. Alzheimer’s Dement. 2022; 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12801

  32. Małgorzata Rózga, Tobias Bittner, Richard Batrla, Johann Karl, Preanalytical sample handling recommendations for Alzheimer’s disease plasma biomarkers, Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, Volume 11, 2019, Pages 291–300, ISSN 2352-8729, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dadm.2019.02.002.

  33. Fogelman I, West T, Braunstein JB, et al. Independent study demonstrates amyloid probability score accurately indicates amyloid pathology [published online ahead of print, 2023 Mar 28]. Ann Clin Transl Neurol. 2023;https://doi.org/10.1002/acn3.51763. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/acn3.51763

  34. Mielke MM, Dage JL, Frank RD, et al. Performance of plasma phosphorylated tau 181 and 217 in the community [published correction appears in Nat Med. 2022 Oct 10;:]. Nat Med. 2022;28}(7}):1398–1405. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01822-2

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  35. Syrjanen JA, Campbell MR, Algeciras-Schimnich A, et al. Associations of amyloid and neurodegeneration plasma biomarkers with comorbidities. Alzheimers Dement. 2022;18(6):1128–1140. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12466

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Pichet Binette A, Janelidze S, Cullen N, et al. Confounding factors of Alzheimer’s disease plasma biomarkers and their impact on clinical performance [published online ahead of print, 2022 Sep 24]. Alzheimers Dement. 2022;https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12787. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12787

  37. Wilkins CH, Windon CC, Dilworth-Anderson P, et al. Racial and Ethnic Differences in Amyloid PET Positivity in Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment or Dementia: A Secondary Analysis of the Imaging Dementia–Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (IDEAS) Cohort Study. JAMA Neurol. 2022;79(11):1139–1147. doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.3157

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  38. Budd Haeberlein S, Aisen PS, Barkhof F, Chalkias S, Chen T, Cohen S, et al. Two Randomized Phase 3 Studies of Aducanumab in Early Alzheimer’s Disease. J Prev Alzheimers Dis. 2022;9(2):197–210.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. McDade E, Cummings JL, Dhadda S, et al. Lecanemab in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease: detailed results on biomarker, cognitive, and clinical effects from the randomized and open-label extension of the phase 2 proof-of-concept study. Alzheimers Res Ther. 2022;14(1):191. Published 2022 Dec 21. doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-022-01124-2

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  40. Bittner et al. Poster presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) San Diego, July 31–August 4 2022.

  41. Pontecorvo MJ, Lu M, Burnham SC, et al. Association of Donanemab Treatment With Exploratory Plasma Biomarkers in Early Symptomatic Alzheimer Disease: A Secondary Analysis of the TRAILBLAZER-ALZ Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Neurol. 2022;79(12):1250–1259. doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.3392

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  42. TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 4 data, presented at 15th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD), San Francisco November 29 - December 2, 2022.

  43. Alzheon press release, Sep 20, 2022. https://alzheon.com/alzheon-reports-industry-leading-biomarker-brain-preservation-and-clinical-effects-following-12-months-of-treatment-in-phase-2-trial-of-oral-alz-801-valiltramiprosate-in-patients-with-early-alzheim/ accessed on March 7, 2023.

  44. Ashton, N.J., Janelidze, S., Mattsson-Carlgren, N. et al. Differential roles of Aβ42/40, p-tau231 and p-tau217 for Alzheimer’s trial selection and disease monitoring. Nat Med 28, 2555–2562 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02074-w

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  45. Portelius E, Mattsson N, Pannee J, et al. Ex vivo 18O-labeling mass spectrometry identifies a peripheral amyloid β clearance pathway. Mol Neurodegener. 2017;12(1):18. Published 2017 Feb 20. doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13024-017-0152-5

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  46. Yanamandra K, Patel TK, Jiang H, et al. Anti-tau antibody administration increases plasma tau in transgenic mice and patients with tauopathy. Sci Transl Med. 2017;9(386):eaal2029. doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aal2029

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  47. Neurofilament makes light of MS treatment monitoring. Nat Rev Neurol. 2019;15(4):188. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-019-0156-6

  48. Lu CH, Macdonald-Wallis C, Gray E, et al. Neurofilament light chain: A prognostic biomarker in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [published correction appears in Neurology. 2015 Sep 8;85(10):921]. Neurology. 2015;84(22):2247–2257. doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000001642

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  49. https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/alz.069262 accessed on March 7, 2023

  50. https://precivityad.com/news/c2n-diagnostics-introduces-the-precivityad2-blood-test accessed on March 7, 2023

  51. Chatterjee P, Pedrini S, Doecke JD, et al. Plasma Aβ42/40 ratio, p-tau181, GFAP, and NfL across the Alzheimer’s disease continuum: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study in the AIBL cohort [published online ahead of print, 2022 Jul 21]. Alzheimers Dement. 2022;https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12724. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12724

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Consortia

Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. Angioni.

Additional information

Conflict of interest

The Task Force was partially funded by registration fees from industrial participants. These corporations placed no restrictions on this work. D. Angioni is an investigator in clinical trials sponsored by Roche, Alector, Janssen, Alzheon, Otsuka, Novo Nordisk, UCB Pharma, Medesis Pharma Eisai, Biogen and the CHU of Toulouse. No direct personal benefit is to be declared. O. Hansson has acquired research support (for the institution) from ADx, AVID Radiopharmaceuticals, Biogen, Eli Lilly, Eisai, Fujirebio, GE Healthcare, Pfizer, and Roche. In the past 2 years, he has received consultancy/speaker fees from AC Immune, Amylyx, Alzpath, BioArctic, Biogen, Cerveau, Eisai, Eli Lilly, Fujirebio, Genentech, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Roche, Sanofi and Siemens. R. Bateman Washington University and Randall Bateman have equity ownership interest in C2N Diagnostics and Randall Bateman receives income from C2N Diagnostics for serving on the scientific advisory board. Randall Bateman may receive income based on technology licensed by Washington University to C2N Diagnostics. Randall Bateman has received research funding from Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Janssen, Roche/Genentech, Eli Lilly, Eisai, Biogen, AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb and Novartis. Randall Bateman serves on the Roche Gantenerumab Steering Committee as an unpaid member. C. Rabe is a full-time employee of Genentech and owns stock options in F.Hoffmann-LaRoche. M. Toloue is an employee and shareholder in Quanterix Corporation. J.B. Braunstein is a full-time employee of and owns equity in C2N Diagnostics. Sam Agus is an employee of Diadem spA. J.R. Sims is an employee of Eli Lilly and Company: salary and minor stockholder. T. Bittner is a full-time employee of F.Hoffmann-LaRoche and Genentech and owns stock options in F.Hoffmann-LaRoche. M. Carrillo is a full-time employee of the Alzheimer’s Association. She received lead grants (without funding) from NIA LEADS (Co-PI, non salaried). She has served on the scientific advisory board for San Antonio Alz Center EAB, ATRI/ACTC EAB and US POINTER Study DSM. She has a daughter that is a full-time graduate student in the USC Neuroscience program. H. Fillit received royalties from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is an unpaid consultant to Biogen. He has received consulting fees from Alector, Otsuka/Lundbeck, and LifeWork. He owns stock options in eFamilyCare. C.L. Master has nothing to declare. S. Salloway was the co-chair of the Investigator Steering Committee for the Aducanumab phase 3 program and he served as a site PI for the aducanumab and lecanemab phase 3 studies, the donanemab phase 2 trial and he was the Project Arm Leader for gantenerumab in DIAN-TU. He has received consulting income from Biogen, Lilly, Roche, Genentech, Bolden, Amylyx, Prothena and Eisai. He has no stock or royalties related to any medication in development. S. Salloway serves on the planning committee for the National Disease Modifying Treatment and Diagnostic Registry Work Group and he is a member of the ADRD Therapeutics Work Group. He is the first author for the report of ARIA in aducanumab phase 3 (Salloway, JAMA Neurology, 2022), the report of gantenerumab and solanezumab in DIAN-TU (Salloway, Nature Medicine, 2021). He is a co-author on the report of the donanemab phase 2 trial (Mintun, NEJM, 2021) and the Aducanumab Appropriate Use Recommendations (Cummings, Journal of the Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2021). P. Aisen reports collaborations on the development of blood-based markers with C2N, Janssen and Roche, during the conduct of the study; grants from Lilly, Eisai, NIH, Alzheimer’s Association; consultant fees from Merck, Biogen, Abbvie, Genentech, ImmunoBrain Checkpoint, Arrowhead, outside the submitted work. M. Weiner reports, outside the submitted work, grants from National Institutes of Health (NIH)/NINDS/National Institute on Aging (NIA), Department of Defense (DOD), California Department of Public Health (CDPH), University of Michigan, Siemens, Biogen, Hillblom Foundation, Alzheimer’s Association, Johnson & Johnson, Kevin and Connie Shanahan, GE, VUmc, Australian Catholic University, The Stroke Foundation, Veterans Administration; personal fees from Boxer Capital, Cerecin, Clario, Dementia Society of Japan, Eisai, Guidepoint, Health and Wellness Partners, Indiana University, LCN Consulting, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., NC Registry for Brain Health, Prova Education, T3D Therapeutics, University of Southern California (USC), WebMD, from China Association for Alzheimer’s Disease (CAAD), Taipei Medical University, AD/PD Congress, Cleveland Clinic, CTAD Congress, Foundation of Learning, Health Society (Japan), INSPIRE Project; U. Toulouse, Japan Society for Dementia Research, Korean Dementia Society, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology (NCGG; Japan), University of Southern California (USC); owns stock-options in Alzeca, Alzheon, ALZ Path, Anven. B Vellas is an investigator in clinical trials sponsored by Biogen, Lilly, Roche, Eisai, Pfizer, Pierre Fabre Pharmaceuticals and the Toulouse University Hospital. He has served as SAB member for Biogen, Alzheon, Green Valley, Norvo Nordisk, Longeveron, Rejuvenate Biomed Clinical Pfizer, Eisai France, Advisory Board Meeting - but received no personal compensation. He has served as consultant and/or SAB member for Roche, Lilly, Eisai, TauX, Cerecin with personal compensation. S. Gauthier is a member of scientific advisory boards of Alzheon, AmyriAD, Biogen Canada, Eisai Canada, Enigma, Lily, Medesis, Roche Canada.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Angioni, D., Hansson, O., Bateman, R.J. et al. Can We Use Blood Biomarkers as Entry Criteria and for Monitoring Drug Treatment Effects in Clinical Trials? A Report from the EU/US CTAD Task Force. J Prev Alzheimers Dis 10, 418–425 (2023). https://doi.org/10.14283/jpad.2023.68

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.14283/jpad.2023.68

Key words

Navigation