Dr Frederique J. Hart de Ruyter, MD, from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, Netherlands, talks about retinal biomarkers for neurodegeneration at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2023 in Amsterdam. She discusses the promise of the retina as a future diagnostic tool for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, by observing the aggregation of proteins present in the eye. Imaging of protein aggregates such as alpha-synuclein, TDP-43 inclusions, or hyperphosphorylated tau in the retina may be of more value to individual patients as biomarkers of disease progression instead of observing neurodegeneration in the eye which lacks discriminatory potential and diagnostic accuracy based on current knowledge. The future development of a label-free imaging technique to observe protein aggregation in the retina would allow patients to be non-invasively screened for Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease pathology at the optometrist.
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