[Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: the contribution of preclinical research]

Abstract : Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is still only probabilistic. It is based on exclusion criteria and requires several sources of information (e.g neuropsychological assessment and morphological neuroimaging). The lack of a definite diagnosis in living patients penalizes therapeutic research and impedes treatment during the early, mildly symptomatic phase of the disease. Over the past ten years, studies of transgenic mice have opened new avenues in pathophysiological and preclinical research, and have identified new potential biomarkers. The aim of this short review of the recent literature is to examine the advantages and pitfalls of using animal models to discover and validate new Alzheimer biomarkers.