In a new study from UNSW Sydney, researchers found new insight into the underlying mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease clinically defined by a progressive loss of memory and other cognitive deficits.
Despite it being one of the major challenges for the 21st century’s public health and economic system, there is still no consensus on the cause of this disease.
In the study, the team examined differences between the blood lipid levels of people with Alzheimer’s disease and ‘healthy’ individuals of the same age (between 75 and 97 years).
The lack of effective treatments and the potential for prevention highlight the importance of identifying early biomarkers for diagnosis, with blood lipids now emerging as promising identifiers of Alzheimer’s disease.
The benefit of lipidomics in biomarker research is that it simultaneously identifies and quantifies hundreds of lipids, acting as a powerful tool in disease and treatment.
However, the separation of the brain from the periphery is a major challenge when examining plasma lipids in Alzheimer’s disease, since not all lipids can be transported across the blood-brain barrier.
In the study, the team developed a classification model, using plasma cholesterol esters, sphingomyelin and triglycerides, to discriminate Alzheimer’s disease from controls with 80% accuracy.
The study also highlighted that genes related to Alzheimer’s disease play a role in influencing lipids that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, reinforcing the consequence of physiological factors—such as inflammation—on brain aging.
The results support findings that certain genes play a contributory if not causal role in bringing about changes in lipid profiles of people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Quantifying these plasma lipids using mass spectrometry provides renewed insight into the underlying mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease.
The study also directs researchers to additional drug targets and may have prognostic benefits in the clinic. It is possible that new nutritional interventions can be developed.
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The study is published in Translational Psychiatry. One author of the study is Dr. Nady Braidy.
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