Alterations in erythrocyte fatty acid composition in preclinical Alzheimer's disease

Authors

Kathryn Goozee, Edith Cowan University
Pratishtha Chatterjee, Edith Cowan University
Ian James
Kaikai Shen, Edith Cowan University
Hamid R. Sohrabi, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Prita R. Ash
Preeti Dave
Bethany Ball
Candice ManYan
Kevin Taddei, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Roger Chung
Manohar L. Garg
Ralph Martins, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

RAS ID

24695

Funders

Anglicare, Sydney

McCusker Alzheimer Research Foundation (MARF)

KaRa Institute of Neurological Diseases (KIND), Sydney

Comments

Goozee, K., Chatterjee, P., James, I., Shen, K., Sohrabi, H. R., Asih, P. R., ... & Chung, R. (2017). Alterations in erythrocyte fatty acid composition in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease. Scientific Reports, 7, Article 676.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-00751-2

Abstract

Brain and blood fatty acids (FA) are altered in Alzheimer’s disease and cognitively impaired individuals, however, FA alterations in the preclinical phase, prior to cognitive impairment have not been investigated previously. The current study therefore evaluated erythrocyte FA in cognitively normal elderly participants aged 65 – 90 years via trans-methylation followed by gas chromatography. The neocortical beta-amyloid load (NAL) measured via positron emission tomography (PET) using ligand ¹⁸F-Florbetaben, was employed to categorise participants as low NAL (standard uptake value ratio; SUVR < 1.35, N = 65) and high NAL or preclinical AD (SUVR ≥ 1.35, N = 35) wherein, linear models were employed to compare FA compositions between the two groups. Increased arachidonic acid (AA, p < 0.05) and decreased docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, p < 0.05) were observed in high NAL. To differentiate low from high NAL, the area under the curve (AUC) generated from a ‘base model’ comprising age, gender, APOEε4 and education (AUC = 0.794) was outperformed by base model + AA:DPA (AUC = 0.836). Our findings suggest that specific alterations in erythrocyte FA composition occur very early in the disease pathogenic trajectory, prior to cognitive impairment. As erythrocyte FA levels are reflective of tissue FA, these alterations may provide insight into the pathogenic mechanism(s) of the disease and may highlight potential early diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets.

DOI

10.1038/s41598-017-00751-2

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.