Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Sep 2;1(3):295-302.
doi: 10.1016/j.dadm.2015.05.003.

The ratio of phosphatidylcholines to lysophosphatidylcholines in plasma differentiates healthy controls from patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment

Kristaps Klavins  1 , Therese Koal  1 , Guido Dallmann  1 , Josef Marksteiner  2 , Georg Kemmler  3 , Christian Humpel  3
Affiliations

The ratio of phosphatidylcholines to lysophosphatidylcholines in plasma differentiates healthy controls from patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment

Kristaps Klavins et al. Alzheimers Dement (Amst). .

Abstract

Background: Metabolomic processes have been identified as being strongly linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Thus, lipid metabolites appear to be highly useful as diagnostic substrates for the diagnosis of AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in plasma.

Methods: We analyzed plasma samples from controls (n = 35), MCI (n = 33), and AD patients (n = 43) using the AbsoluteIDQ p180 Kit (Biocrates Life Sciences), which included quantitative analysis of 40 acylcarnitines, 21 amino acids, 19 biogenic amines, 15 sphingolipids, 90 glycerophospholipids, and sum of hexoses.

Results: We found that individual lipid metabolites can differentiate controls from MCI and AD with relevant significance. However, the ratio between PC aa C34:4 and lysoPC a C18:2 differentiates controls from MCI (P = .0000007) and from AD (P = .0000009) with greater significance.

Conclusions: The results provide evidence that the ratio of these two lipid metabolites is useful for diagnosing MCI and AD with an accuracy of 82%-85%.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Diagnosis; Metabolomics; Mild cognitive impairment; Plasma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Raw values and ROC curves of the metabolite ratio with the highest statistical significance in MCI (A) and AD (B) patients as compared with those of controls. Abbreviations: MCI, mild cognitive impairment; AUC, area under the ROC curve; AD, Alzheimer's disease; ROC, receiver operating characteristic.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Fagan nomogram showing pretest and posttest probabilities of developing MCI (A) or AD (B) (blue line: subjects with positive test result, red line: subjects with negative test result). Abbreviations: MCI, mild cognitive impairment; AD, Alzheimer's disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Hardy J., Selkoe D.J. The amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease: Progress and problems on the road to therapeutics. Science. 2002;297:353–356. Review. Science 2002;297(5590):2209. - PubMed
    1. Morris G.P., Clark I.A., Vissel B. Inconsistencies and controversies surrounding the amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease. Acta Neuropathol Commun. 2014;2:135. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nisbet R.M., Polanco J.C., Ittner L.M., Götz J. Tau aggregation and its interplay with amyloid-β. Acta Neuropathol. 2015;129:207–220. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Humpel C., Marksteiner J. Cerebrovascular damage as a cause for Alzheimer's disease? Curr Neurovasc Res. 2005;2:341–347. - PubMed
    1. Erickson M.A., Banks W.A. Blood-brain barrier dysfunction as a cause and consequence of Alzheimer's disease. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2013;33:1500–1513. - PMC - PubMed