AUTHOR=Abreu Catarina M. , Soares-dos-Reis Ricardo , Melo Pedro N. , Relvas João B. , Guimarães Joana , Sá Maria José , Cruz Andrea P. , Mendes Pinto Inês TITLE=Emerging Biosensing Technologies for Neuroinflammatory and Neurodegenerative Disease Diagnostics JOURNAL=Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience VOLUME=11 YEAR=2018 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/molecular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnmol.2018.00164 DOI=10.3389/fnmol.2018.00164 ISSN=1662-5099 ABSTRACT=

Neuroinflammation plays a critical role in the onset and progression of many neurological disorders, including Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. In these clinical conditions the underlying neuroinflammatory processes are significantly heterogeneous. Nevertheless, a common link is the chronic activation of innate immune responses and imbalanced secretion of pro and anti-inflammatory mediators. In light of this, the discovery of robust biomarkers is crucial for screening, early diagnosis, and monitoring of neurological diseases. However, the difficulty to investigate biochemical processes directly in the central nervous system (CNS) is challenging. In recent years, biomarkers of CNS inflammatory responses have been identified in different body fluids, such as blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and tears. In addition, progress in micro and nanotechnology has enabled the development of biosensing platforms capable of detecting in real-time, multiple biomarkers in clinically relevant samples. Biosensing technologies are approaching maturity where they will become deployed in community settings, at which point screening programs and personalized medicine will become a reality. In this multidisciplinary review, our goal is to highlight both clinical and recent technological advances toward the development of multiplex-based solutions for effective neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disease diagnostics and monitoring.