Introduction to special issue on Advances in blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease

Blood-based biomarkers related to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have significant potential to advance both the diagnostic and therapeutic processes and procedures related to this devastating disease. In light of this potential, a significant amount of work has been conducted in recent years. In fact a PubMed search (6/2016) using the terms “blood based biomarkers AND Alzheimer’s disease” yielded 474 hits with an overwhelming 48% of these articles being published from 2013–2016. This special issue of Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring on Advances in blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease is intended to provide a broad-based snapshot regarding several aspects of the space. This special issue contains advancements in the space spanning newer technologies (e.g., exosome biomarkers) as well as progression in markers that have been more extensively studied (e.g., autoantibodies, apoJ). The special issue is broken down by categories that broadly correspond to a specific putative context of use (COU). Blood-based biomarkers offer an excellent complementary information to well-established cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), imaging (MRI, PET, other) biomarkers for the establishment of multistage processes for diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, such as what has been of tremendous utility in other areas of medicine (e.g., cancer [1]). The intention of these blood-based biomarkers is to increase access to CSF, imaging, and other biomarker modalities as well as to provide novel information to enhance the scientific understanding of the complete biological dysfunction associated with AD and other neurological diseases. This special issue has been conceptually divided into broadly defined categories beginning with methodological considerations, to a set of possible context of uses (COUs) and ends with a study highlighting ethnic considerations in this space of scientific investigation.