BACKGROUND

Dietary nitrate, as a nitric oxide (NO) precursor, may support brain health and protect against dementia.

OBJECTIVE

Our primary aim was to investigate whether dietary nitrate is associated with neuroimaging markers of brain health linked with Alzheimer's disease (AD).

PARTICIPANTS

Study participants were cognitively unimpaired individuals from the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study of Ageing (AIBL) who had β-amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) scans (n = 554) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans (n = 335) and had completed a Food Frequency Questionnaire at baseline.

METHODS

Source-specific nitrate intakes were estimated using comprehensive nitrate food composition databases. Rates of cerebral β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition, measured using PET, and rates of brain atrophy, measured using MRI, were assessed between baseline and 126-months follow-up, at intervals of 18 months. Multivariable-adjusted linear mixed effect models were used to examine associations between baseline source-specific nitrate intake and rates of (i) cerebral Aβ deposition and (ii) brain atrophy, over the 126 months of follow-up. Analyses were carried out following stratification of the sample by established dementia Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk factors including sex and presence or absence of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele.

RESULTS

In women carriers of the APOE ε4 allele, higher plant sourced nitrate intake (median intake 121 mg/day), was associated with a slower rate of cerebral Aβ deposition [β: 4.47 versus 8.99 Centiloid (CL) /18 months, p < 0.05] and right hippocampal atrophy [-0.01 versus -0.03 mm3 /18 months, p < 0.01], after multivariable adjustments. Moderate intake showed protective associations in men carriers and in both men and women non-carriers of APOE ε4.

CONCLUSIONS

Associations were observed between plant-derived nitrate intake and cerebral Aβ deposition, particularly in high-risk populations (women and APOE ε4 carriers). Associations were also observed for brain volume atrophy, however these exhibited subgroup variability without clear patterns relative to sex and APOE ε4 allele carriage. These findings suggest a potential link between plant-sourced nitrate and AD related neuroimaging markers of brain health improved brain health, but further validation in larger studies is required.