This new biomarker, a protein called neurogranin, paves the way for a better understanding of the disease. It allows doctors to estimate the extent of the damage to patients’ synapses and also to predict the rate of cognitive decline in patients with mild cognitive impairment. By measuring the new biomarker, the disease can be detected at an earlier stage than previously, since the loss of synapses is believed to occur early in the disease process, perhaps even earlier than neuronal loss. Until now, the degree of neuronal loss has been a difficult thing to identify in Alzheimer’s sufferers. The measurement of neurogranin, which will soon be implemented as part of a routine clinical analysis at the Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory in Gothenburg, Sweden, involves extracting cerebrospinal fluid during a harmless lumbar puncture or spinal tap, which is then tested for the neurogranin protein. 

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease caused by the accumulation of proteins in the brain, permanently damaging the memory and leading to the death of the patient. There is currently no available cure. Treatments available today target the symptoms of the disease, helping patients to cope with memory loss. These treatments do not stop the progression of the disease. Nevertheless, there is reasonable hope that we will see a cure within the next 5 to 10 years. Early diagnosis of the disease will then become even more crucial in order to obtain the most effective results.

The SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science is proud to support the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation for the fifth consecutive year through this SCOR Young European Researcher Prize.

Extending and reinforcing a partnership initiated by SCOR in 2008, the SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science teamed up with the research program of the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation in June 2013, signing a sponsorship agreement. As well as creating an annual award for young European researchers, the agreement notably enables the Research Foundation to continue to observe a cohort of patients as part of a long-term study of Alzheimer’s sufferers, and to promote cooperation with foreign scientists in the field of research into this disease.

Erik Portelius on the French Alzheimer’s Research Foundation (Fondation Recherche Alzheimer) website.

Publications by Erik Portelius

• Quantification of total apolipoprotein E and its isoforms in cerebrospinal fluid from patients with neurodegenerative diseases.
  Minta K, Brinkmalm G, Janelidze S, Sjödin S, Portelius E, Stomrud E, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Hansson O, Andreasson U. Alzheimers Res Ther.
  2020 Feb 13;12(1):19. doi: 10.1186/s13195-020-00585-7. PMID: 32054532 Free PMC article
• Perspectives in fluid biomarkers in neurodegeneration from the 2019 biomarkers in neurodegenerative diseases course-a joint PhD student course at University College London and University of Gothenburg.
  Obrocki P, Khatun A, Ness D, Senkevich K, Hanrieder J, Capraro F, Mattsson N, Andreasson U, Portelius E, Ashton NJ, Blennow K, Schöll M, Paterson RW, Schott JM, Zetterberg H. Alzheimers Res Ther.
  2020 Feb 28;12(1):20. doi: 10.1186/s13195-020-00586-6. PMID: 32111242 Free PMC article. Review
• Association of Cerebrospinal Fluid Neurofilament Light Protein Levels With Cognition in Patients With Dementia, Motor Neuron Disease, and Movement Disorders.
  Olsson B, Portelius E, Cullen NC, Sandelius Å, Zetterberg H, Andreasson U, Höglund K, Irwin DJ, Grossman M, Weintraub D, Chen-Plotkin A, Wolk D, McCluskey L, Elman L, Shaw LM, Toledo JB, McBride J, Hernandez-Con P, Lee VM, Trojanowski JQ, Blennow K. JAMA Neurol.
  2019 Mar 1;76(3):318-325. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2018.3746.
• Cerebrospinal fluid tau fragment correlates with tau PET: a candidate biomarker for tangle pathology.
  Blennow K, Chen C, Cicognola C, Wildsmith KR, Manser PT, Bohorquez SMS, Zhang Z, Xie B, Peng J, Hansson O, Kvartsberg H, Portelius E, Zetterberg H, Lashley T, Brinkmalm G, Kerchner GA, Weimer RM, Ye K, Höglund K. Brain.
  2020 Feb 1;143(2):650-660. doi: 10.1093/brain/awz346. PMID: 31834365
• Patient-specific Alzheimer-like pathology in trisomy 21 cerebral organoids reveals BACE2 as a gene dose-sensitive AD suppressor in human brain.
  Alić I, Goh PA, Murray A, Portelius E, Gkanatsiou E, Gough G, Mok KY, Koschut D, Brunmeir R, Yeap YJ, O'Brien NL, Groet J, Shao X, Havlicek S, Dunn NR, Kvartsberg H, Brinkmalm G, Hithersay R, Startin C, Hamburg S, Phillips M, Pervushin K, Turmaine M, Wallon D, Rovelet-Lecrux A, Soininen H, Volpi E, Martin JE, Foo JN, Becker DL, Rostagno A, Ghiso J, Krsnik Ž, Šimić G, Kostović I, Mitrečić D; LonDownS Consortium, Francis PT, Blennow K, Strydom A, Hardy J, Zetterberg H, Nižetić D. Mol Psychiatry.
  2020 Jul 10. doi: 10.1038/s41380-020-0806-5. Online ahead of print. PMID: 32647257
• Novel tau fragments in cerebrospinal fluid: relation to tangle pathology and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease.
  Cicognola C, Brinkmalm G, Wahlgren J, Portelius E, Gobom J, Cullen NC, Hansson O, Parnetti L, Constantinescu R, Wildsmith K, Chen HH, Beach TG, Lashley T, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Höglund K. Acta Neuropathol.
  2019 Feb;137(2):279-296. doi: 10.1007/s00401-018-1948-2. Epub 2018 Dec 13. PMID: 30547227 Free PMC article
• Novel tau fragments in cerebrospinal fluid: relation to tangle pathology and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease.
  Cicognola C, Brinkmalm G, Wahlgren J, Portelius E, Gobom J, Cullen NC, Hansson O, Parnetti L, Constantinescu R, Wildsmith K, Chen HH, Beach TG, Lashley T, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Höglund K. Acta Neuropathol.
  2019 Feb;137(2):279-296. doi: 10.1007/s00401-018-1948-2. Epub 2018 Dec 13. PMID: 30547227 Free PMC article
• First amyloid β1-42 certified reference material for re-calibrating commercial immunoassays.
  Boulo S, Kuhlmann J, Andreasson U, Brix B, Venkataraman I, Herbst V, Rutz S, Manuilova E, Vandijck M, Dekeyser F, Bjerke M, Pannee J, Charoud-Got J, Auclair G, Mazoua S, Pinski G, Trapmann S, Schimmel H, Emons H, Quaglia M, Portelius E, Korecka M, Shaw LM, Lame M, Chambers E, Vanderstichele H, Stoops E, Leinenbach A, Bittner T, Jenkins RG, Kostanjevecki V, Lewczuk P, Gobom J, Zetterberg H, Zegers I, Blennow K. Alzheimers Dement.
  2020 Nov;16(11):1493-1503. doi: 10.1002/alz.12145. Epub 2020 Aug 4. PMID: 3275501
• Identification of neurotoxic cross-linked amyloid-β dimers in the Alzheimer's brain.
  Brinkmalm G, Hong W, Wang Z, Liu W, O'Malley TT, Sun X, Frosch MP, Selkoe DJ, Portelius E, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Walsh DM. Brain.
  2019 May 1;142(5):1441-1457. doi: 10.1093/brain/awz066. PMID: 31032851 Free PMC article
• First amyloid β1-42 certified reference material for re-calibrating commercial immunoassays.
  Boulo S, Kuhlmann J, Andreasson U, Brix B, Venkataraman I, Herbst V, Rutz S, Manuilova E, Vandijck M, Dekeyser F, Bjerke M, Pannee J, Charoud-Got J, Auclair G, Mazoua S, Pinski G, Trapmann S, Schimmel H, Emons H, Quaglia M, Portelius E, Korecka M, Shaw LM, Lame M, Chambers E, Vanderstichele H, Stoops
  E, Leinenbach A, Bittner T, Jenkins RG, Kostanjevecki V, Lewczuk P, Gobom J, Zetterberg H, Zegers I, Blennow K. Alzheimers Dement. 2020 Nov;16(11):1493-1503. doi: 10.1002/alz.12145. Epub 2020 Aug 4. PMID: 32755010

More publications by Erik Portelius are available on the National Library of Medicine website.