Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Abbreviations: AD, alzheimer’s disease; CDR, clinical dementia rating; MNA, mini nutritional assessment; HDL, high density lipoprotein; LDL, low density lipoprotein levels; Aβ, accumulation of beta-amyloid; NINCDS-ADRDA, national institute of neurologic and communicative disorders and stroke and the alzheimer disease and related disorders association; MMSE, mini-mental state exam; ALT, alanine transaminase; AST, aspartate transaminase; CBC, complete blood count Introduction Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease which presents synaptic loss and neural death, resulting in cerebral atrophy, with consequent and gradual loss of memory and cognitive impairment, individual incapacity and progressive disability. 1,2 AD has, as post-mortem markers, insoluble aggregates of β-amyloid peptides and insoluble flaments composed of hyper phosphorylated tau protein. 3 To obtain blood samples from patients, such as serum, plasma and circulating cells is simple, therefore these are considered potential sources of biomarkers for AD diagnosis, research and clinical practice. 4,5 Plasmatic elements such as enzymes, glucose and lipids have been widely studied in AD´s patients. 6 Such plasmatic compounds would allow the implementation of effective preventive and therapeutic measures during the early stages of the disease, long before substantial cognitive impairment and brain structure´s decline. Analyses of nutritional blood components and the monitoring of other conditions, have contributed to improve AD’s pathological progression understanding. According to Vetrivel and Thinakaran, total cholesterols levels and low density lipoprotein levels (LDL) in serum correlate with the accumulation of Beta-amyloid (Aβ) peptides in the brain of patients with AD. 7 Micronutrients, such as selenium and zinc, B vitamins and antioxidant vitamins have being described as fundamental elements for cerebral neuroprotection and cognitive function in elderly people. 8 According to Chen e Zhong, metabolism dysfunctions of cerebral glucose can be fundamental contributors to the pathogenesis of the disease, through the induction of various factors such as oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, in addition its occurrence precedes cognitive dysfunction and pathological changes even over the decades. 9 However, the diffculty of developing a biomarker based in blood for AD is marked by the fact that Alzheimer’s is a disease that progresses slowly and heterogeneously, since mixed pathologies are observed frequently. 10 Considering such evidences, this study aimed to investigate the relation between biochemical and hematological parameters commonly used in clinical practices, such as lipid profles, hepatic enzymes, glucose and CBC in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and also correlate them with the different stages of the disease and the nutritional status of the patients. Materials and methods This study was conducted with AD patients, registered in the “Specialized Component of Pharmaceutical Assistance” of the Health Ministry of Guarapuava, Parana, Brazil, from August to October 2011. Initially, 66 subjects were recruited in the program, with probable diagnosis of AD, according to the criteria of the National Institute of Neurologic and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders Association (NINCDS- Hos Pal Med Int Jnl. 2017;1(4):90‒95 90 © 2017 Fermino et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Potential biomarkers for alzheimer’s disease screened in a small Brazilian population Volume 1 Issue 4 - 2017 Bárbara Luísa Fermino, 1 Jéssica Wouk, 1 Roberta Fabbli, 2 Weber Claúdio Francisco Nunes da Silva, 1 José Carlos Rebuglio Vallosa, 3 Juliana Sartori Bonini, 1 Luan Henrique Patrzyk, 4 Anne Karine Bosetto, 5 Flávia Ivansk 5 1 Pharmacy Department, Midwest State University, Brazil 2 Department of Neuroscience, University of Florence, Italy 3 Department of Clinical and Toxicological Analysis, State University of Ponta Grossa, Brazil 4 Department of Physiotherapy, Midwest State University, Brazil 5 Department of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Correspondence: Juliana Sartori Bonini, Pharmacy Department, Midwest State University, Simeão Camargo Varella de Sá Street, Guarapuava, Paraná, Brazil, Email Juliana.bonini@gmail.com Received: September 26, 2017 | Published: October 06, 2017 Abstract Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) leads neurodegenerative diseases ranking and, because of this, clinical attention focus on the identification of blood, serum and plasma’ biomarkers in AD patients, since diagnostic have not a gold standard yet. In order to improve diagnose, current study explore relation between biochemical and hematological’ parameters, which are commonly applied as lipid profile, liver enzymes, glucose and hemogram. Furthermore, different stages of AD have been evaluated through Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) and Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) evaluated nutritional status, since nutritional status interferes directly in parameters reached. For this purpose, this study included 30 patients, being 18(60%) women and 12(40%) men, in different stages of AD. Our data report that malnutrition level is directly related with disease progression, as discussed in literature over the years. With regard to hematological analysis, significate difference was observed between parameters and groups, where patients in moderate stage of disease improved erythrocytes and had greater values of globular volume when compared to final stage, suggesting that AD is a possible risk factor to anemia. Biochemical data also presented significate difference, showing that disease progression, High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) values and total cholesterol are directly proportional. Take into consideration significate differences from this study and since AD means a heterogeneous disease, more studies are needed to validate in vivo essays that may be relevant to identify this disease. Keywords: alzheimer disease, biomarkers, neurodegeneration, biochemistry, nutrition Hospice and Palliative Medicine International Journal Research Article Open Access