Proteomes (Aug 2021)

CSF Proteomic Alzheimer’s Disease-Predictive Subtypes in Cognitively Intact Amyloid Negative Individuals

  • Betty Marije Tijms,
  • Johan Gobom,
  • Charlotte Teunissen,
  • Valerija Dobricic,
  • Magda Tsolaki,
  • Frans Verhey,
  • Julius Popp,
  • Pablo Martinez-Lage,
  • Rik Vandenberghe,
  • Alberto Lleó,
  • José Luís Molinuévo,
  • Sebastiaan Engelborghs,
  • Yvonne Freund-Levi,
  • Lutz Froelich,
  • Lars Bertram,
  • Simon Lovestone,
  • Johannes Streffer,
  • Stephanie Vos,
  • ADNI,
  • Kaj Blennow,
  • Philip Scheltens,
  • Henrik Zetterberg,
  • Pieter Jelle Visser

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/proteomes9030036
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 3
p. 36

Abstract

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We recently discovered three distinct pathophysiological subtypes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) using cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteomics: one with neuronal hyperplasticity, a second with innate immune system activation, and a third subtype with blood–brain barrier dysfunction. It remains unclear whether AD proteomic subtype profiles are a consequence of amyloid aggregation, or might exist upstream from aggregated amyloid. We studied this question in 127 older individuals with intact cognition and normal AD biomarkers in two independent cohorts (EMIF-AD MBD and ADNI). We clustered 705 proteins measured in CSF that were previously related to AD. We identified in these cognitively intact individuals without AD pathology three subtypes: two subtypes were seen in both cohorts (n = 49 with neuronal hyperplasticity and n = 44 with blood–brain barrier dysfunction), and one only in ADNI (n = 12 with innate immune activation). The proteins specific for these subtypes strongly overlapped with AD subtype protein profiles (overlap coefficients 92%–71%). Longitudinal p181-tau and amyloid β 1–42 (Aβ42) CSF analysis showed that in the hyperplasticity subtype p181-tau increased (β = 2.6 pg/mL per year, p = 0.01) and Aβ42 decreased over time (β = −4.4 pg/mL per year, p = 0.03), in the innate immune activation subtype p181-tau increased (β = 3.1 pg/mL per year, p = 0.01) while in the blood–brain barrier dysfunction subtype Aβ42 decreased (β = −3.7 pg/mL per year, p = 0.009). These findings suggest that AD proteomic subtypes might already manifest in cognitively normal individuals and may predispose for AD before amyloid has reached abnormal levels.

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