The obesity Not only does it impact cardiovascular and metabolic health, but it could also be linked to much faster disease progression Alzheimer. This is according to a new study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), which analyzed for the first time how this condition affects associated blood biomarkers neurodegenerative disease.
The results are conclusive: in People with obesityThe biological changes associated with Alzheimer’s could develop up to 95% faster than in people of a healthy weight. The research was conducted by the Neuroimaging Labs Research Center at Washington University’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology in St. Louis and was based on five years of follow-up of more than 400 participants.
The scientific team analyzed data from 407 people who took part in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. All of them underwent positron emission tomography (PET) to measure the accumulation of beta-amyloid, one of the main components Alzheimer’s markersalong with blood tests to detect key biomarkers of the disease.
Proteins tested included pTau217, neurofilament light chain (NfL) and GFAP protein, using six leading international commercial assays. This allowed the researchers to compare the development of the markers in both Brain as in blood over time.
In the first evaluations the Body mass index (BMI) appeared to be associated with lower biomarker levels and lower amyloid burden in the brain. At first glance, this might lead to the assumption that people with obesity have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
However, the researchers discovered that this seemingly “protection” was misleading. The most likely explanation is that as blood volume increases, the biomarkers in the blood become diluted, making their levels appear lower than they actually are. For this reason, long-term follow-up was crucial for the correct interpretation of the data.
When the development over the five years was analyzed, the panorama changed completely. In people with obesity, biomarkers linked to Alzheimer’s rose much faster than in the rest of the participants. Specifically, between 29% and 95% more rate of increase in pTau217, a 24% greater increase in NfL values, and a 3.7% greater increase were observed Amyloid accumulation in the brain.
Another relevant fact was that blood tests proved to be even more sensitive than brain images in detecting the influence of obesity on disease progression.
This work reinforces the idea that modifiable factors play a central role Risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. According to the 2024 Lancet Commission report, there are 14 risk factors that can be modified and that together explain about 45% of the overall risk of developing the disease.
Obesity now appears to be a particularly relevant element within this group. Reducing the impact could not only reduce the number of cases but also delay the onset of symptoms.
Researchers argue that monitoring Alzheimer’s disease using blood biomarkers combined with brain imaging studies could in the near future become a standard tool for assessing the effectiveness of treatments, particularly new drugs targeting amyloid.
Additionally, the study opens new lines of research into people who achieve success lose weight by anti-obesity drugs to assess whether this change also leads to a slowing of the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
The ability to observe molecular pathologies through blood while simultaneously assessing structural changes in the brain through MRI provides a solid foundation for future clinical trials and for the development of more personalized therapies.
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