Ishizuka, K.; Shang, G.; Malik, S.; Doty, C.; Dave, S.; Rowan, N.; Lema, Y.; Lane, A.; Sawa, A.

Unlike other diseases where target organs for biopsy are accessible, surrogate platforms are warranted for biomarkers of neuropsychiatric disorders due to the inaccessibility of the brain. We demonstrate a non-invasive platform combining a nasal soft-brush swab with single-cell Western blotting for neuron-specific protein analysis. Applied to Alzheimer's disease targeting phosphorylated tau, this demonstrated superior diagnostic capacity compared with blood-based approaches, indicating that the olfactory neuroepithelium is a sensitive biomarker platform.