Alzheimer Dementia: Fudan University Yu Jintai's new discovery: the complex relationship between blood pressure and cognition, tau protein plays a "matchmaker" role

Dementia is one of the fastest-growing public health problems.
It is estimated to affect 30 to 40 million people worldwide.
Due to the aging population, this number is expected to triple by 2050
.

First, although long-term follow-up studies have shown that middle-aged hypertension is associated with an increased risk of dementia, the association with late-life hypertension has vague results
.

One potential reason for the complexity of these associations is that blood pressure patterns in middle and old age are always heterogeneous and have different effects on cognition or brain pathological changes

diagnosis

In addition, few studies have investigated the biological mechanism of the relationship between BP and cognitive impairment
.

As the most common type of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by the accumulation of extracellular amyloid plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles, which can be passed through Aβ, Aβ42, p-tau in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) And the level of total tau protein (t-tau) is reflected as early as the preclinical stage

So far, the effects of these core AD pathologies on the relationship between BP and cognition have not been studied in detail
.

The effects of these core AD pathologies on the relationship between BP and cognition have not been studied in detail

They found a clear age-related pattern of blood pressure
.

Middle-aged hypertension (especially systolic blood pressure), lower diastolic blood pressure in the late stage, and higher pulse pressure in the late stage are associated with cognitive impairment and tau-related biomarkers

Middle-aged hypertension (especially systolic blood pressure), lower diastolic blood pressure in the late stage, and higher pulse pressure in the late stage are associated with cognitive impairment and tau-related biomarkers

The important significance of this research lies in the discovery that Tau lesions may play an important role in the relationship between blood pressure and cognition, and have obvious age and BP type dependence
.

Tau lesions may play an important role in the relationship between blood pressure and cognition, and have obvious age and BP type dependence.

Tau lesions may play an important role in the relationship between blood pressure and cognition, and have obvious age and cognition.
BP type dependence

Original source:
Hu H, Meng L, Bi YL, Zhang W, Xu W, Shen XN, Ou YN, Ma YH, Dong Q, Tan L, Yu JT.

Tau pathologies mediate the association of blood pressure with cognitive impairment in adults without dementia: The CABLE study.
Alzheimers Dement.
2021 May 25.

Leave a message here