Immune Markers Are Associated with Cognitive Performance in a Multiethnic Cohort: the Northern Manhattan Study, 2021, Elkind,Hornig et al

Highlights
•
Immune molecules associate with cognition in an ethnically diverse population.

•
They add information about cognition beyond traditional risk factors like age and vascular risk.

•
Chemokines CCL11 and CXCL9, the neurotrophic factor HGF, and serpin E1 most consistently associated with global cognition, as well as individual cognitive domains.

•
These data provide potential immune pathways as targets to reduce cognitive decline.

Abstract
Objective
To determine whether immune protein panels add significant information to correlates of cognition.

Background
Immune mechanisms in vascular cognitive aging are incompletely characterized.

DESIGN/METHODS: A subsample of the prospective Northern Manhattan Study underwent detailed neuropsychological testing. Cognitive scores were converted into Z-scores and categorized into four domains (memory, language, processing speed, and executive function) based on factor analysis. Blood samples were analyzed using a 60-plex immunoassay. We used least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) procedures to select markers and their interactions independently associated with cognitive scores. Linear regression models assessed cross-sectional associations of known correlates of cognition with cognitive scores, and assessed model fit before and after addition of LASSO-selected immune markers.

Results
Among 1179 participants (mean age 70±8.9 years, 60% women, 68% Hispanic), inclusion of LASSO-selected immune markers improved model fit above age, education, and other risk factors (p for likelihood ratio test<0.005 for all domains). C-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 11 (CCL 11, eotaxin), C-X-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 9 (CXCL9), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and serpin E1 (plasminogen activator inhibitor-1) were associated with each of the domains and with overall cognitive function. Immune marker effects were comparable to conventional risk factors: for executive function, each standard deviation (SD) increase in CCL11 was associated with an effect equivalent to aging three years; for memory, HGF had twice the effect of aging.

Conclusions
Immune markers associate with cognitive function in a multi-ethnic cohort. Further work is needed to validate these findings and determine optimal treatment targets.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889159121002750

 

I wonder if VEGF is considered an immune marker, and if they looked at that seeing as how low VEGF values can be, I think, associated with cognitive decline.