Title:Plasma Angiotensin-(1-7) is a Potential Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease
Volume: 13
Issue: 2
Author(s): Teng Jiang, Lan Tan, Qing Gao, Huan Lu, Xi-Chen Zhu, Jun-Shan Zhou and Ying-Dong Zhang
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Alzheimer’s disease, Renin-angiotensin system, angiotensin-(1-7), ACE2, plasma, biomarker.
Abstract: Brain angiotensin-(1-7) (Ang-(1-7)) concentration has been shown to be reduced and inversely correlated with
tau pathology in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this study, to determine whether the concentration of
Ang-(1-7) and the activity of its converting enzyme angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 were altered in plasma under AD
context, the plasma samples from 110 AD patients and 128 age- and gender-matched controls were screened. In AD patients,
the plasma concentration of Ang-(1-7) was significantly reduced (15.63±4.35pg/mL vs. 19.58±3.22pg/mL,
P<0.001) and positively correlated with cognitive functions (R=0.66, P<0.001). Meanwhile, receiver-operating characteristic
analysis showed that the Ang-(1-7) concentration in plasma could distinguish AD patients from controls with the sensitivity
and specificity of 69.1% and 74.2%, respectively, when the optimal cut-off value (18.2 pg/mL) was chosen. These
findings indicate that plasma Ang-(1-7) may represent a potential biomarker for AD diagnosis, and further suggest an involvement
of this heptapeptide in the pathogenesis of this disease.
