The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Jul 16;25(14):7758. doi: 10.3390/ijms25147758.
Dementia is a group of symptoms including memory loss, language difficulties, and other types of cognitive and functional impairments that affects 57 million people worldwide, with the incidence expected to double by 2040. Therefore, there is an unmet need to develop reliable biomarkers to diagnose early brain impairments so that emerging interventions can be applied before brain degeneration. Here, we performed biomarker analyses for apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain (ASC), neurofilament light chain (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and amyloid-β 42/40 (Aβ) ratio in the plasma of older adults. Participants had blood drawn at baseline and underwent two annual clinical and cognitive evaluations. The groups tested either cognitively normal on both evaluations (N), cognitively normal year 1 but cognitively impaired year 2 (N), or cognitively impaired on both evaluations (I). ASC was elevated in the plasma of the N group compared to the N and I groups. Additionally, Aβ was increased in the plasma in the N and I groups compared to the N group. Importantly, the area under the curve (AUC) for ASC in participants older than 70 years old in N vs. N groups was 0.81, indicating that ASC is a promising plasma biomarker for early detection of cognitive decline.
痴呆症是一组症状，包括记忆力减退、语言困难和其他类型的认知和功能障碍，全球有 5700 万人受其影响，预计到 2040 年发病率将翻倍。因此，需要开发可靠的生物标志物来早期诊断大脑损伤，以便在大脑退化之前应用新兴的干预措施。在这里，我们对老年人血浆中的凋亡相关斑点样蛋白含有半胱氨酸蛋白酶募集域（ASC）、神经丝轻链（NfL）、神经胶质纤维酸性蛋白（GFAP）和淀粉样蛋白-β 42/40（Aβ）比值进行了生物标志物分析。参与者在基线时采血，并进行了两次年度临床和认知评估。测试组要么在两次评估中都认知正常（N），要么在第一次评估中认知正常但在第二次评估中认知受损（N），要么在两次评估中都认知受损（I）。与 N 和 I 组相比，N 组的血浆 ASC 水平升高。此外，与 N 组相比，N 和 I 组的血浆 Aβ 增加。重要的是，N 组中年龄大于 70 岁的参与者的 ASC 曲线下面积（AUC）为 0.81，表明 ASC 是一种有前途的血浆生物标志物，可早期检测认知能力下降。
