Plasma phospholipids and prevalence of mild cognitive impairment and/or dementia in the ARIC Neurocognitive Study (ARIC-NCS)

Danni Li; Jeffrey R Misialek; Eric Boerwinkle; Rebecca F Gottesman; A Richey Sharrett; Thomas H Mosley; Josef Coresh; Lisa M Wruck; David S Knopman; Alvaro Alonso

doi:10.1016/j.dadm.2016.02.008

Plasma phospholipids and prevalence of mild cognitive impairment and/or dementia in the ARIC Neurocognitive Study (ARIC-NCS)

Alzheimers Dement (Amst). 2016 May 6:3:73-82. doi: 10.1016/j.dadm.2016.02.008. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Lab Medicine and Pathology, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
² Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
³ School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX, USA.
⁴ Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁵ School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁶ Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA.
⁷ Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
⁸ Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.

Abstract

Introduction: Phospholipids are altered in brains of patients with dementia and some studies suggest their plasma levels may be useful in the detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia.

Methods: We measured 188 plasma metabolites in participants who underwent a detailed neuropsychological assessment and classified as normal (n = 153), MCI (n = 145), or dementia (n = 143) by expert adjudication.

Results: Among 10 phospholipids recently implicated as altered in dementia, higher concentration of PC aa C36:6 was significantly associated with decreased prevalence of dementia (odds ratio = 0.71, 95% confidence interval = 0.50-1.00 per 1-SD increase). Adding these phospholipids to a model including multiple predictors of dementia led to only minimal improvement in detection (C statistic changed from 0.702 to 0.71).

Discussion: Some phospholipids and metabolites were altered in MCI and dementia but cross-sectional association was relatively weak and did not improve detection of MCI and dementia beyond information provided by clinical variables.

Keywords: AD; ARIC; ARIC-NCS; Alzheimer's disease; Dementia; MCI; Metabolites; Metabolomics; Mild cognitive impairment; Phospholipids; Plasma.

Abstract

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