Investigation of P-Bodies Biomarker LSM14A in Cerebrospinal Fluid of Alzheimer's Disease Patients

Alzheimer disease (AD), which is characterized by the pathological agregations of extracellular amyloid beta (Aß) and intracellular neurofibrillary tangels (NFT) in the enthorhinal cortex and hippocampus regions of the brain, is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder in the world and mostly affects the cognitive functions of patients. Neurological function disability in the neurodegenerative disorders begins from dendrites, and according to this, dendritic substances spread to exstracellular space and can also pass to the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The hypothesis of which the mRNAs can be found in company with accessory proteins in the CSF and that accessory proteins are the P-bodies, which store the mRNA in the dendrites, was developed based on both the presence of studies about the passage of mRNA in the CSF and the knowledge about the unavailability of the naked mRNAs in the CSF because of their fragile structure. Within the scope of this thesis, the presence and level of LSM14A protein, which is one of the main proteins of P-bodies, in the CSF of both AD and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) patients were researched. As a result, the presence of LSM14A in the CSF was firstly shown in the literature with this study, and also the results show that while the level of LSM14A protein in the CSF of AD patients, who have <3 years of duration of disease, was significantly high, the LSM14A protein in the CSF of AD patients was significantly decreasing depending on the increasing duration of disease. In the light of this findings, it can be said that the LSM14A protein can be considered as potential biomarker for the early phase of AD.