This may be a valuable biomarker for detecting individuals with cognitive impairment and dementia caused by vascular brain damage, according to the authors of new study.
According to a recent study lead by a UCLA Health researcher, measuring a crucial blood molecule may help physicians determine if or to what extent reduced blood flow to a patient’s brain is causing dementia or cognitive issues.
Cerebral small vessel disease, a prevalent condition characterized by damage to the cells lining the blood arteries in the brain, is a key contributor to cognitive difficulties and dementia in the elderly.
Yet, it may be difficult for medical professionals to identify whether Alzheimer’s disease or vascular issues—the two most common causes of dementia—are mostly to blame for a patient’s cognitive problems.
MRIs and CAT scans are often used by doctors to look for signs of brain damage, but there is also a degree of guessing involved.
According to a recent study released on February 23rd in the Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, individuals who have increased levels of placental growth factor (PlGF) – a critical molecule involved in the development of new blood vessels, also known as angiogenesis – are more likely to exhibit cognitive impairment or signs of brain injury.
According to lead author Jason Hinman, “Historically, diagnostic studies for cognitive impairment and dementia have been limited to structural brain imaging, but increasingly there’s a recognition that we can use the bloodstream as an available but imperfect tool to understand who maximally benefits from those structural and functional imaging tools.
“It may also tell us who might be the best candidates for some of the really new emerging drugs that are available on the market to treat cognitive impairment and dementia.”
This research is among the first validation findings disclosed by a network of academic medical institutions supported by the National Institutes of Health to uncover biomarkers related with the vascular mechanisms driving cognitive impairment.
The MarkVCID collaboration was established in 2016 as researchers realized they required a deeper understanding of the specific way vascular brain damage was causing dementia.
The signaling processes that are involved in angiogenesis have been discovered by researchers as possible biomarkers. They hypothesize that the body may react to damaged tiny blood arteries in the brain by making greater attempts to generate more of these vessels.
Just one of those signals, PlGF, which has previously been linked to controlling cerebral blood flow, was the focus of this work. This may be a valuable biomarker for detecting individuals with cognitive impairment and dementia caused by vascular brain damage, according to data also acquired by the collaboration.
At UCLA and four other research sites, 335 people had their brains scanned, their thinking skills tested, and their blood taken. The likelihood of having dementia or cognitive impairment was shown to be three times higher in the highest quartile of PlGF measurement subjects than in the bottom quartile.
Also, there was a 22% increase in the risk of cognitive impairment and a 16% increase in the likelihood of imaging evidence of cerebral small vessel disease for every unit rise in total PlGF in the circulation.
“The addition of a blood-based biomarker that is associated with the traditional measures of vascular injury could allow a provider to be able to distinguish the patient that has Alzheimer’s-predominant dementia versus a significant vascular contribution,” adds Dr. Hinman. “Right now it’s kind of the clinician’s best guess. This work can directly inform this diagnostic decision.”
PlGF and a number of other angiogenic indicators in the bloodstream are still being investigated by the research team to see whether they may be used to forecast the possibility of future cognitive deterioration.
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