Potential association between frailty and pTau in community-dwelling older adults

Abstract

Background Frailty is a geriatric syndrome characterized by a decline in physiological reserves, and multiple factors contribute to the occurrence and development of frailty. Growing evidence supports a strong link and overlap between frailty and cognitive impairment, but the mechanisms involved have not yet been fully elucidated. Aim To identify associations between 12 plasma cognition-related biomarkers and frailty in community-dwelling older adults. Methods A total of 375 participants (age 70.9 ± 5.8, 165 men and 210 women) were included in this study. Frailty was assessed using the modified Fried frailty phenotype. Participants were divided into not-frail group (n = 313) and frail group (n = 62). Twelve plasma cognitive biomarkers were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Multinomial logistic regression was used to explore the association between different biomarkers and frailty status. Results Among the 12 biomarkers, only pTau was higher in frail individuals than in their not-frail peers (471.3 ± 58.1 pg/mL vs. 451.9 ± 61.1 pg/mL, p = 0.022). No other biomarkers had any significant association with frailty, including total-Tau (tTau), neurofilament light (NFL), amyloid-β 40 (Aβ40), amyloid-β 40 (Aβ42), S100 calcium binding protein B (S100B), visinin-like protein 1 (VLP-1), Alzheimer-associated neuronal thread protein (AD7cNTP), β-amyloid precursor protein (βAPP), chitinase-3-like-1 (CHI3L1), soluble complement receptor 1 (sCR1) and heart-type fatty acid binding protein (hFABP). Furthermore, pTau was compared between negative and positive subject groups for each individual criterion of frailty. Significantly higher levels of pTau were observed in those who were positive for the criteria of low grip strength (451.2 ± 61.4 pg/mL vs. 469.1 ± 57.6 pg/mL, p = 0.019), exhaustion (451.2 ± 61.6 pg/mL vs. 466.4 ± 58.4 pg/mL, p = 0.035) and low physical activity (451.1 ± 60.7 pg/mL vs. 465.7 ± 60.7 pg/mL, p = 0.034) when compared to those who were negative for each corresponding criterion. Finally, in the multivariable-adjusted analysis, the association between pTau and frailty was statistically significantly associated (OR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.04–1.89), even after adjusting. Conclusions The present study found a potential association between pTau and frailty. Future works should monitor the longitudinal trajectory of changes of pTau concentrations in frailty older adults. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind will contribute to biomarker research in frailty.

Cerebrospinal fluid proteomic profile of frailty: Results from the PROLIPHYC cohort

“…Fourth, we found an association between frailty and several proteins associated with neurodegenerative processes. Indeed, several proteins related to AD were associated with FI, more particularly in amyloid metabolism (Lu et al., 2021; Zhou et al., 2022). We found a negative association between FI and APP, the precursor of β‐amyloid, and its homolog, APLP2, as well as SORL1, a regulator of endosomal recycling of APP (Mishra et al., 2022).…”

Understanding exogenous factors and biological mechanisms for cognitive frailty: a multidisciplinary scoping review

“…The authors suggested that frailty exacerbates the release of these vesicles in patients with MCI. Zhou et al, (2022) examined a range of neural biomarkers that have been associated with cognitive decline and dementia in relation to any link to frailty (tTau, pTau (Thr181), NFL, Aβ40, Aβ42, S100B 1, VLP-1, AD7cNTP, βAPP, CHI3L1, sCR1 and hFABP). pTau was related to frailty, but other plasma biomarkers were not, including beta amyloid, a marker for Alzheimer's Disease (AD).…”

Medicamentos potencialmente inapropiados para el adulto mayor en el servicio de medicina interna

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