CSF BACE1 activity is increased in CJD and Alzheimer disease versus other dementias

To assess the diagnostic utility of CSF BACE1 activity for discriminating Alzheimer disease (AD) from other dementias, particularly Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the authors studied 26 patients with sporadic CJD, 21 patients with AD, and 21 patients with various non-AD, non-CJD dementias (DCs). CSF BACE1 activity was elevated in AD in comparison with DC (p = 0.01). Unexpectedly, CSF BACE1 activity was also increased in sporadic CJD (p = 0.02).