Interpretation of National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association research framework of biological definition of Alzheimer's disease 2018

The National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer′s Association (NIA-AA) research framework of biological definition of Alzheimer′s disease 2018 is introduced to Chinese counterparts to share a common language with dementia researchers. The abnormal definitions of Alzheimer′s disease (AD), β amyloid deposition (Aβ) and tau, were proposed to be detected by biological methods, and a series of changes before dementia and dementia were proposed to be studied under a unified biological framework. The characteristic biomarkers were defined as AT(N): A is β amyloid deposition, T is pathological tau protein, and (N) is neurodegeneration. The diversity of the pathological nature of dementia was emphasized, and AD combined with dementia was proposed not to be directly attributable to dementia due to AD. The definition of biomarkers requires more standardization and confirmation of autopsy pathology. Key words: Alzheimer disease; Biomarkers; Alzheimer′s continuum