From the Guidelines
None of the provided options (Amyloid Beta, Tau protein, Ubiquitin, or Synuclein) are specific markers for vascular dementia.
Vascular Dementia Markers
Instead, the following markers have been found to provide information on vascular cognitive impairment:
- Serum albumin ratio to identify blood-brain barrier damage
- Sulfatide to identify demyelination of the white matter
- Neurofilament to identify axonal degeneration
- Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) to identify changes in the extracellular matrix associated with vascular disease 1.
Exclusion of AD Markers
It's worth noting that elevated levels of CSF tau and phospho-tau proteins are not found in VCI patients, but are used to identify patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), which can help in differentiating between the two conditions 1.
From the Research
Vascular Dementia Markers
The following proteins have been studied as potential markers for vascular dementia:
- Ubiquitin: mentioned in the study 2 as a protein involved in protein degradation, which is a physiological process represented in neurodegenerative diseases.
- Other proteins such as cystatin C, alpha-1-antichymoptrypsin, C3a, and C4a were also identified as potential markers in the study 2.
Excluded Markers
The following proteins are not specifically identified as markers for vascular dementia:
- Amyloid Beta: studied as a marker for Alzheimer's disease in 3, 4, and 5.
- Tau protein: also studied as a marker for Alzheimer's disease in 3, 4, and 6.
- Synuclein: mentioned in the study 3 as a potential biomarker for Alzheimer's disease, and in 5 as a protein related to cerebral amyloid angiopathy. Note that while these proteins are not specifically identified as markers for vascular dementia, they may still be relevant in the context of neurodegenerative diseases.