Brain Imaging Study Suggests Higher Mid-Life Cholesterol May Increase Risk of Alzheimer's
PHOENIX (Aug. 24, 2009) – A brain-imaging study published in the online edition of the journal NeuroImage suggests that higher cholesterol levels in a person’s 50s and 60s may lead to brain changes associated with increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease when they get older.
The study also suggests a way to test the value of cholesterol-lowering treatments in this age group without having to wait many years to determine whether they develop Alzheimer’s symptoms.
Studies following thousands of middle-aged people for several decades suggest higher cholesterol levels in middle-aged people might increase their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
For instance, researchers recently reported that a four-decade study involving almost 10,000 people from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Medical Group found that even slightly elevated levels of cholesterol in late middle age were associated with a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s-related memory and dementia disorders.
In addition, in a new brain-imaging study, researchers from the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and their collaborators in the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium used a brain-imaging technique called PET to characterize the relationship between serum total cholesterol levels and brain metabolism in 117 cognitively normal people in their 50s and 60s.
Higher cholesterol levels were associated with lower brain activity in extensive brain regions, including those known to be affected by normal aging and those known to be preferentially affected by Alzheimer’s disease. The relationship was significantly greater in people with one or two copies of the APOE4 gene, a common Alzheimer’s susceptibility gene, than in those people at lower genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease in the brain regions known to be affected by Alzheimer’s disease.
“Our findings suggest higher cholesterol levels accelerate the brain changes associated with normal aging and conspire with other risk factors to increase a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Eric Reiman, the study’s lead investigator, executive director of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and director of the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium.
While the study raises the possibility that the use of cholesterol-lowering treatments in middle-aged people might reduce a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease, it would take many years to test the value of these treatments – waiting for enough middle-aged people in a prevention trial to develop the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease at older ages. To help address the problem, Arizona researchers have proposed the idea of determining whether cholesterol-lowering treatments in middle-aged APOE4 carriers slow down the brain changes associated with normal aging and the susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease.
According to Reiman, “brain imaging and other biomarker measurements have the potential to help evaluate promising risk-reducing and prevention therapies in middle-aged people without having to lose a generation.”
“It’s important to evaluate cholesterol-lowering treatments and other promising treatments to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in just this way,” added Dr. Richard Caselli, professor and Chairman of Neurology at Mayo Clinic Arizona. Alzheimer’s disease afflicts about 10 percent of people over age 65 and almost half over 85. With the skyrocketing number of people living to older ages, there is an urgent need to find demonstrably effective Alzheimer’s prevention therapies, Caselli said.
The research study was conducted by researchers from the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, Mayo Clinic Arizona, the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium.
The authors include Eric M. Reiman, M.D., Kewei Chen, Ph.D., Jessica B.S. Langbaum, Ph.D., Wendy Lee, M.S., Cole Reschke, B.S., Daniel Bandy, M.S., Gene E. Alexander, Ph.D., and Richard J. Caselli, M.D. It was led by Dr. Reiman from the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and co-led by Dr. Richard Caselli from Mayo Clinic.
It was funded by research grants from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH), and the Evelyn G. McKnight Brain Institute and the state of Arizona, and contributions from the Banner Alzheimer’s Foundation and Mayo Clinic Foundation.
About Banner Alzheimer’s Institute
Banner Alzheimer’s Institute (BAI) is a treatment and research facility dedicated to helping patients with memory and thinking problems. It offers clinical care for patients; provides education, referral and support services for families and caregivers; and conducts leading-edge brain-imaging, clinical trials, brain imaging and genetics studies. The Institute is devoted to finding effective Alzheimer’s disease-slowing and prevention treatments in the shortest time possible. BAI and the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center are owned and operated by Phoenix-based Banner Health, a nonprofit organization. For more information visit www.banneralz.org.
About University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is one of the nation's leading public universities, with a long history of
academic excellence, research innovation and a student-centered approach. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, the UA is ranked 13th among public universities by the National Science Foundation with total research expenditures last year of $530 million. With more than 38,000 students across three campuses representing 50 states and 124 nations, the UA is on the forefront of discoveries – from the depths of space to the medical and genetic mysteries of life, from emerging trends in climate change to the broad complexities of the human condition. For more information, visit www.arizona.edu
About Arizona State University
The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University integrates diverse fields of science to cure and prevent disease, overcome the limitations of injury, renew the environment and improve national security. By fusing research in biology, engineering, medicine, physics, information technology and cognitive science, the institute accelerates discoveries into uses that can be adopted rapidly by the private sector. For more information, visit http://www.biodesign.asu.edu.
About TGen
The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, is focused on developing earlier diagnostics and smarter treatments. Translational genomics research is a relatively new field employing innovative advances arising from the Human Genome Project and applying them to the development of diagnostics, prognostics and therapies for cancer, neurological disorders, diabetes and other complex diseases. TGen's research is based on personalized medicine and the institute plans to accomplish its goals through robust and disease-focused research.
About Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium
The Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium (AAC) capitalizes on the complementary resources of its seven member institutions to promote the scientific understanding and early detection of Alzheimer's disease and find effective disease-stopping and prevention therapies. Established in 1998, the Consortium also seeks to educate Arizona’s residents about Alzheimer’s disease, research progress in the state and the resources needed to help patients, families, and professionals manage the disease. The AAC is comprised of both the NIA-funded Arizona Disease Core Center (ADCC) and the state-funded Arizona Alzheimer’s Research Center (AARC). The AAC's member research institutions include Arizona State University, the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, the Barrow Neurological Institute, Mayo Clinic Arizona, Sun Health Research Institute, the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the University of Arizona.
About National Institute of Aging
The NIA leads the federal government effort conducting and supporting research on the biomedical, social and behavioral issues of older people. For more information on aging-related research and the NIA, go to www.nia.nih.gov. The NIA provides information on age-related cognitive change and neurodegenerative disease specifically at its Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center site at www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers.
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