Amyloid-β oligomers are inefficiently measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

Amyloid-beta (A beta) peptide levels are widely measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in Alzheimer's disease research. Here, we show that oligomerization of A beta results in underestimated A beta ELISA levels. The implications are that comprehensive analysis of soluble A beta requires either sample pretreatment at denaturing conditions or novel conformation-dependent immunoassays. Our findings might be of relevance for many neurodegenerative disorders in which soluble protein aggregates are the main neurotoxic species.