Kallikrein-related peptidases 6 and 10 are elevated in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and associated with CSF-TAU and FDG-PET

BACKGROUND: Alterations in the expression of human kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) have been described in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We elucidated the suitability of KLK6, KLK8 and KLK10 to distinguish AD from NC and explored associations with established AD biomarkers. METHODS: KLK levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), as determined by ELISA, were compared between 32 AD patients stratified to A/T/(N) system with evidence for amyloid pathology and of 23 normal controls with normal AD biomarkers. Associations between KLK levels and clinical severity, CSF and positron emission tomography (PET) based AD biomarkers were tested for. RESULTS: Levels of KLK6 and KLK10 were significantly increased in AD. KLK6 differed significantly between AD A+/T+/N+ and AD A+/T−/N+ or NC with an AUC of 0.922. CSF pTau and tTau levels were significantly associated with KLK6 in AD. CONCLUSIONS: KLK6 deserves further investigations as a potential biomarker of Tau pathology in AD. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40035-019-0168-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.