Alzheimer’s Disease Ontology (ADO)

Overview

The Alzheimer’s Disease Ontology (ADO) is a domain ontology covering the concepts relevant to Alzheimer’s disease research. It provides a semantic framework linking the biological and clinical dimensions of the disease, connecting biomarker measurements to clinical staging criteria, genetic risk factors, and imaging findings.

Key Concept Areas

ADO covers the following domains (examples given for each):

• Biomarkers including amyloid-β (CSF and PET), tau (phospho-tau and PET), and NfL, aligned with LOINC codes.
• Clinical staging using NIA-AA criteria (preclinical, MCI, dementia) and the ATN framework.
• Genetic risk factors including APOE ε4, PSEN1/2, and APP mutations, linked to HPO and OMIM.
• Imaging findings including hippocampal atrophy and amyloid PET positivity.
• Cognitive assessments including MMSE, MoCA, and CDR, alignable with LOINC clinical scales.

Connections

• Cross-references: HPO (phenotype terms), OMIM (genetic risk factors), LOINC (biomarker codes)

Resources

• https://bioportal.bioontology.org/ontologies/ADO
• https://www.alzforum.org (Alzheimer’s disease research resource portal)