Department of Pharmacology, Sarajevo Medical School, Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Department of Cardiology, General Hospital "Prim.Dr. Abdulah Nakas", Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
PLoS One. 2019 Feb 14;14(2):e0212261. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212261. eCollection 2019.
Alzheimer's disease represents the most common age-related neurodegenerative disorder and a leading cause of progressive cognitive impairment. Predicting cognitive decline is challenging but would be invaluable in an increasingly aging population which also experiences a rising cardiovascular risk. In order to examine whether plasma measurements of one of the established biomarkers of heart failure, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), reflect a decline in cognitive function, associated with Alzheimer's disease neurodegeneration, BNP levels were analysed, by using a novel assay called a SOMAscan, in 1. cognitively healthy, control subjects; 2. subjects with mild cognitive impairment, and 3. subjects with Alzheimer's disease. The results of our study show that the levels of the BNP were significantly different between the three types of diagnoses (p < 0.05), whereby subjects with mild cognitive impairment had the lowest mean BNP value, and healthy subjects had the highest BNP value. Importantly, our results show that the levels of the BNP are influenced by the presence of at least one APOE4 allele in the healthy (p < 0.05) and in the Alzheimer's disease groups of subjects (p < 0.1). As the levels of the BNP appear to be independent of the APOE4 genotype in subjects with mild cognitive impairment, the results of our study support inclusion of measurements of plasma levels of the BNP in the list of the core Alzheimer's disease biomarkers for identification of the mild cognitive impairment group of patients. In addition, the results of our study warrant further investigations into molecular links between Alzheimer's disease-type cognitive decline and cardiovascular disorders.
阿尔茨海默病是最常见的与年龄相关的神经退行性疾病，也是进行性认知障碍的主要原因。预测认知能力下降具有挑战性，但对于人口老龄化和心血管风险上升的情况来说非常有价值。为了研究心力衰竭的一种既定生物标志物——脑利钠肽（BNP）的血浆测量值是否反映了与阿尔茨海默病神经退行性变相关的认知功能下降，我们使用一种名为 SOMAscan 的新检测方法分析了 BNP 水平，该检测方法分析了 1. 认知健康的对照组受试者；2. 轻度认知障碍受试者；3. 阿尔茨海默病受试者。我们的研究结果表明，三种诊断类型之间的 BNP 水平存在显著差异（p < 0.05），轻度认知障碍受试者的平均 BNP 值最低，而健康受试者的 BNP 值最高。重要的是，我们的结果表明，BNP 水平受至少一个 APOE4 等位基因的影响，无论是在健康受试者（p < 0.05）还是在阿尔茨海默病受试者组中（p < 0.1）。由于 BNP 水平在轻度认知障碍受试者中似乎独立于 APOE4 基因型，因此我们的研究结果支持将 BNP 血浆水平的测量纳入阿尔茨海默病生物标志物的核心列表，以识别轻度认知障碍患者组。此外，我们的研究结果还需要进一步研究阿尔茨海默病型认知能力下降与心血管疾病之间的分子联系。
