CIEN and the Vallecas Project participate in a study on neurodegenerative biomarkers in cognitively preserved nonagenarians

A recent study published in the journal Alzheimer's Disease ( doi:%2010.14336/AD.2024.1260 ) examines plasma biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease in individuals over 90 years old with intact cognition, comparing them with patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and younger individuals. The CIEN Foundation and the Vallecas Project collaborated with Dr. Estrella Gómez Tortosa, a neurologist from Fundación Jiménez Díaz and the study's promoter, to obtain some interesting findings on brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases.

The analysis of plasma samples from these subjects, performed using the Single Molecule Array (SIMOA) platform at CIEN, revealed that healthy nonagenarians show significantly elevated levels of Aß40, Aß42, p-tau181, NfL, and GFAP, with NfL and GFAP levels being close to those observed in Alzheimer's disease. Although this set of biomarkers does not exhibit the typical pattern of Alzheimer's disease, their high levels suggest the presence of resistance to brain aging and resilience against neurodegeneration.

The study also highlights the influence of age on neurodegenerative biomarkers and the need for caution when using markers like NfL and GFAP in the clinical prognosis of dementia. Additionally, it emphasizes that plasma biomarkers remain stable in cognitively intact individuals well into their 80s. All these data are useful for the diagnosis and prevention of neurodegenerative diseases.

This work, which includes valuable data from the Vallecas Project and CIEN's collaboration, reinforces the importance of continuing to research biomarkers as key tools for early diagnosis and intervention in healthy aging and neurodegenerative diseases.