阿茲海默氏症(Alzheimer’s disease，以下簡稱阿氏症)…是一種會隨年紀增長而提高罹患率的神經退化性疾病，亦是最常見的失智症(dementia)。阿氏症的潛伏期很長，大部分的患者被醫師診斷為阿氏症時常已屬中晚期之患者，此時再 予以投藥往往效果不彰。所以，尋找一個可及早診斷阿氏症的生物性指標至為重要。阿氏症主要有兩種病變：1)…腦細胞外堆積許多呈纖維狀的神經細胞有毒分子-貝它類糊蛋白(β-amyloid peptide…)；2)…神經細胞內聚集異常磷酸化tau蛋白所形成之神經纖維絮 (neurofibrillary tangles)。在先前的研究顯示，腦組織中的貝它類糊蛋白可在中樞的腦脊髓液(cerebrospinal fluid)…和周邊的血清/血漿(serum/plasma)…被偵測出，且會與許多血清蛋白結合。最近更有報告指出，在周邊血清中注射貝它類糊蛋白的抗體，可有效降低大腦中貝它類糊蛋白的含量。 因此，本實驗的目的有：1)…純化並分析血漿中貝它類糊蛋白結合蛋白的身份；與2)…研究這些貝它類糊蛋白結合蛋白的含量是否可作為阿氏症的生物性指標。我們利用avidin-biotin沉澱法，凝膠電泳(gel electrophoresis)，以及質譜儀(mass spectrometry)，來尋找並確認血清中貝它類糊蛋白結合蛋白的身份。結果發現在阿氏症中有4個蛋白質(apolipoproteinA-1、apolipoprotein C3、apolipoprotein E 和α-1-antitrypsin)…的量有明顯增加。再以酵素結合免疫吸附法(ELISA)…比較200 個醫師確診的阿氏症病人和35個無失智的健康成人血清中貝它類糊蛋白結合蛋白的濃度。結果顯示，病人的血漿中apolipoprotein E的量比健康成人多，且達到顯著差異。但apolipoprotein A1、apolipoprotein C3 、α-1-antitrypsin在病人的量雖略高於健康成人，卻沒有達到顯著差異。以性別區分的結果亦同。

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