Association of years to parent's sporadic onset and risk factors with neural integrity and Alzheimer biomarkers

Eider M Arenaza-Urquijo; Gemma Salvadó; Gregory Operto; Carolina Minguillón; Gonzalo Sánchez-Benavides; Marta Crous-Bou; Oriol Grau-Rivera; Aleix Sala-Vila; Carles Falcón; Marc Suárez-Calvet; Henrik Zetterberg; Kaj Blennow; Juan Domingo Gispert; José Luis Molinuevo; ALFA Study

doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000010527

Association of years to parent's sporadic onset and risk factors with neural integrity and Alzheimer biomarkers

Neurology. 2020 Oct 13;95(15):e2065-e2074. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000010527. Epub 2020 Jul 31.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ From the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (E.M.A.-U., G.S., G.O., C.M., G.S.-B., M.C.-B., O.G.-R., A.S.-V, C.F., M.S.-C., J.D.G., J.L.M.), Pasqual Maragall Foundation; IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) (E.M.A.-U., G.S., G.O., C.M., G.S.-B., M.C.-B., O.G.-R., A.S.-V, C.F., M.S.-C., J.D.G., J.L.M.), Barcelona; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (E.M.A.-U., G.S., G.O., C.M., G.S.-B., M.C.-B., O.G.-R., M.S.-C., J.L.M.), Madrid, Spain; Department of Epidemiology (M.C.-B.), Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA; Servei de Neurologia (O.G.-R., M.S.-C.), Hospital del Mar, Barcelona; Investigación Biomédica en Red Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (C.F., J.D.G.), Madrid, Spain; Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory (H.Z., K.B.), Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Mölndal; Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry (H.Z., K.B.), Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Mölndal, Sweden; Department of Neurodegenerative Disease (H.Z.), UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square; UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL (H.Z.), London; and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (J.D.G., J.L.M.), Barcelona, Spain. earenaza@barcelonabeta.org.
² From the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (E.M.A.-U., G.S., G.O., C.M., G.S.-B., M.C.-B., O.G.-R., A.S.-V, C.F., M.S.-C., J.D.G., J.L.M.), Pasqual Maragall Foundation; IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) (E.M.A.-U., G.S., G.O., C.M., G.S.-B., M.C.-B., O.G.-R., A.S.-V, C.F., M.S.-C., J.D.G., J.L.M.), Barcelona; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (E.M.A.-U., G.S., G.O., C.M., G.S.-B., M.C.-B., O.G.-R., M.S.-C., J.L.M.), Madrid, Spain; Department of Epidemiology (M.C.-B.), Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA; Servei de Neurologia (O.G.-R., M.S.-C.), Hospital del Mar, Barcelona; Investigación Biomédica en Red Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (C.F., J.D.G.), Madrid, Spain; Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory (H.Z., K.B.), Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Mölndal; Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry (H.Z., K.B.), Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Mölndal, Sweden; Department of Neurodegenerative Disease (H.Z.), UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square; UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL (H.Z.), London; and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (J.D.G., J.L.M.), Barcelona, Spain.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the hypothesis that proximity to parental age at onset (AAO) in sporadic Alzheimer disease (AD) is associated with greater AD and neural injury biomarker alterations during midlife and to assess the role of nonmodifiable and modifiable factors.

Methods: This observational study included 290 cognitively unimpaired (CU) participants with a family history (FH) of clinically diagnosed sporadic AD (age 49-73 years) from the Alzheimer's and Families (ALFA) study. [¹⁸F]flutemetamol-PET standardized uptake value ratios, CSF β-amyloid_42/40 ratio, and phosphorylated tau were used as AD biomarkers. Hippocampal volumes and CSF total tau were used as neural injury biomarkers. Mental and vascular health proxies were calculated. In multiple regression models, we assessed the effect of proximity to parental AAO and its interaction with age on AD and neural injury biomarkers. Then, we evaluated the effects of FH load (number of parents affected), sex, APOE ε4, education, and vascular and mental health.

Results: Proximity to parental AAO was associated with β-amyloid, but not with neural injury biomarkers, and interacted with sex and age, showing that women and older participants had increased β-amyloid. FH load and APOE ε4 showed independent contributions to β-amyloid load. Education and vascular and mental health proxies were not associated with AD biomarkers. However, lower mental health proxies were associated with decreased hippocampal volumes with age.

Conclusion: The identification of the earliest biomarker changes and modifiable factors to be targeted in early interventions is crucial for AD prevention. Proximity to parental AAO may offer a timeline for detection of incipient β-amyloid changes in women. In risk-enriched middle-aged cohorts, mental health may be a target for early interventions.

Clinicaltrialsgov identifier: NCT02485730.

Classification of evidence: This study provides Class II evidence that in CU adults with FH of sporadic AD, proximity to parental AAO was associated with β-amyloid but not with neural injury biomarkers.

Publication types

Observational Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Age of Onset
Aged
Aging / metabolism*
Alzheimer Disease / cerebrospinal fluid
Alzheimer Disease / diagnosis*
Alzheimer Disease / pathology
Amyloid beta-Peptides / cerebrospinal fluid*
Apolipoprotein E4 / genetics
Biomarkers
Early Diagnosis*
Family Health / statistics & numerical data*
Female
Genotype
Hippocampus / pathology
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Multimodal Imaging
Risk Factors
Sex Factors
tau Proteins / cerebrospinal fluid*

Substances

Amyloid beta-Peptides
Apolipoprotein E4
Biomarkers
tau Proteins

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT02485730