阿茲海默症是一種神經退化性疾病，在失智症中佔了很大的比率，且在早期不易診斷出來。台灣的社會已面臨老化與少子化，此症對於家庭、社會、醫療機構勢必構成沉重的負擔。本文中將介紹阿茲海默症相關成因、分子機制以及目前的檢測方法，此外，亦將介紹兩種高靈敏度、高專一性的檢測方法：生物條碼檢測與光學生物感應器。此二種方法均以奈米科技為基礎，原理卻不相同。在發現阿茲海默症百年後的今天，尖端檢測科技將為人類早期診斷阿茲海默症提供新法，若加上新型藥物的開發，則可為此症的治療帶來希望的曙光。 Alzheimer's disease (AD) is difficult to correctly diagnose in the early stage. The enormous increase in the prevalence of AD over the coming decades definitely becomes a great burden for patient's family, society and medical institutes. The early and correct diagnosis, which is always the goal of scientists, shall greatly reduce healthcare costs in the future, it will also increase the quality of an esteemed life for patient. Here, I would like to briefly introduce the clinical symptoms, molecular mechanism and diagnosis of AD. Two novel and elegant designed assays, bio-barcode assay and optical biosensor, possible for future early detection of AD, will also be introduced. These two assays are recently developed, and are used to measure the concentration of protein marker for AD with great sensitivity and specificity.
