Exploring the association of the heart-kidney-brain axis for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease progression

Résumé fourni par la source

The incidence and prevalence of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), chronic kidney disease (CKD) and chronic heart disease (CHD) increase dramatically as age increases. There is considerable evidence that residents of rural areas like West Virginia (WV) have less access to preventive health care and therefore are subject to higher incidences of AD risk factors. Arterial structure, function and blood flow deteriorate with advancing age. Thus, it is likely that early vascular aging (EVA) will be a formidable component of brain, heart and kidney diseases. There are specific markers of EVA that cannot be assessed non-invasively. Proxies of these specific biomarkers of EVA can be assessed in plasma and some plasma biomarkers are considered to be more specific to organ function. Hence, the objective of the present study is to investigate the association of biomarkers and pathophysiological processes of AD in CKD population with co-occurrence of CHD and whether the co-occurrence of CHD and CKD in AD will worsen the severity or age of onset of cognitive impairment in AD. The cross-sectional study was funded by IRP/NIH) was conducted in patients attending the Geriatrics and Nephrology Department at Cabell Huntington Hospital, WV. Patients were selected based on the established inclusion and exclusion criteria. The plasma samples from AD and CKD patients in comparison with age-matched controls were used for the assessment of echocardiographic, biochemical and miRNA parameters. The plasma biomarkers such as MMP9, Aβ1-42/Aβ1-40 ratio, p-tau, Neurofilament light chain (NfL), Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) and IL-6 were analyzed. The circulating levels of miRNAs that are related to neurodegeneration (miR-155, miR-132 and miR-206) were also measured in plasma. Our results showed that there was a significant elevation in the biomarkers of neurodegeneration, fibrosis, oxidative stress, and inflammation in CKD patients in comparison with AD patients. The correlation analysis revealed the significant link between the parameters of CKD and AD, supporting the idea that a kidney-heart-brain disease axis is underpinned by the severity of EVA. Hence, the identification of these pathophysiological factors will lead to the development of a therapeutic strategy for reducing the risk of AD from CKD with underlying CHD. The study would attract the attention of the medical and scientific communities to the rural populations living in WV with multiple comorbidities, with scarce access to preventive medical care and also guide in providing early therapeutic strategies, which may reduce the burden of the latter two pathologies on AD. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.

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