“We can see a lot of peripheral biological involvement decades before the onset of typical dementia,” said study author Keenan Walker, a neuroscientist at the National Institute on Aging.
dementia (pixabay)
So Walker and colleagues wondered whether by looking at a person’s proteome, the collection of all the proteins expressed throughout the body, they could find factors that predict the development of dementia before the onset of the disease. So they tried to look for signs of dysregulation caused by higher or lower than normal levels of the protein.
Walker et al. had blood samples from more than 10,000 participants. The samples come from a study initiated in 1987 and still ongoing today. Over 30 years, the participants underwent six check-ups, during which about one-fifth developed dementia.
Analyzing the samples, the researchers found that dysregulation of 32 proteins was strongly associated with increased odds of developing dementia later in life among people aged 45 to 60. Some of these proteins are active in the brain, but most have other roles in the body, and a few are involved in protein homeostasis. This process is important to keep proteins from spinning out of control, or clumping together, as amyloid and tau do in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.
The study found that levels of a number of proteins were altered in the brain tissue and blood of people with Alzheimer’s disease. These proteins were associated with the presence of amyloid and tau proteins, suggesting that they are somehow involved in the development of the disease.
“Not all proteins show changes in plasma and in brain tissue,” says Nicholas Seyfried, a biochemist and neurologist at Emory University in the United States. For example, the strongest associations with dementia risk were not detected in the brain. One of the proteins, GDF15, suggested that the area below the neck may also play a role in the development of the disease.
protein (pixabay)
Exactly how these proteins are linked to the disease is still unclear, Walker said, but it’s unlikely that the link was just accidental, and it’s a long way to go before understanding exactly how any of these proteins fit into the physiology of dementia. way to go. Although a person’s proteome by itself cannot predict dementia risk, it can help improve disease prediction.
Related paper information:
https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.adf5681
2023-08-15 09:07:12
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