ArticleAlzheimer's research & therapy2024
Comparison of plasma and neuroimaging biomarkers to predict cognitive decline in non-demented memory clinic patients.
Article in Alzheimer's research & therapy, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Prognostic value of plasma biomarkers for informing clinical trial design in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2025Trial
- Blood-based biomarkers and early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Detecting amyloid-β pathology in subjective cognitive decline using plasma and CSF biomarkers.EBioMedicine · 2026Article
- Plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 determined by mass spectrometry is associated with longitudinal changes in amyloid accumulation, brain atrophy, and conversion to mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease in individuals with subjective cognitive decline: 5-year follow-up of the FACEHBI cohort.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2026Article
- Plasma p-Tau217 and GFAP predict widespread cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease.Journal of neurology · 2025Article
- Machine learning models for dementia screening to classify brain amyloid positivity on positron emission tomography using blood markers and demographic characteristics: a retrospective observational study.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2025Observational
- Early detection of mild cognitive impairment utilizing ocular biomarker-based risk scoring nomogram.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- Biomarkers of cognitive and memory decline in psychotropic drug users.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2025Review
- TOMM40 may mediate GFAP, neurofilament light Protein, pTau181, and brain morphometry in aging.Aging brain · 2025Article
- Alzheimer's disease: part 2 - the present.Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria · 2024Review
- Incremental value of plasma biomarkers in predicting clinical decline among cognitively unimpaired older adults: Results from the A4 trial.Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)Article
- Individualized cholinergic pathway degeneration in Alzheimer's disease characterized by normative modeling.Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)Article
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Abstract
backgroundPlasma biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, neurodegeneration, and neuroinflammation are ideally suited for secondary prevention programs in self-sufficient persons at-risk of dementia. Plasma biomarkers have been shown to be highly correlated with traditional imaging biomarkers. However, their comparative predictive value versus traditional AD biomarkers is still unclear in cognitively unimpaired (CU) subjects and with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
methodsPlasma (Aβ42/40, p-tau181, p-tau231, NfL, and GFAP) and neuroimaging (hippocampal volume, centiloid of amyloid-PET, and tau-SUVR of tau-PET) biomarkers were assessed at baseline in 218 non-demented subjects (CU = 140; MCI = 78) from the Geneva Memory Center. Global cognition (MMSE) was evaluated at baseline and at follow-ups up to 5.7 years. We used linear mixed-effects models and Cox proportional-hazards regression to assess the association between biomarkers and cognitive decline. Lastly, sample size calculations using the linear mixed-effects models were performed on subjects positive for amyloid-PET combined with tau-PET and plasma biomarker positivity.
resultsCognitive decline was significantly predicted in MCI by baseline plasma NfL (β=-0.55), GFAP (β=-0.36), hippocampal volume (β = 0.44), centiloid (β=-0.38), and tau-SUVR (β=-0.66) (all p < 0.05). Subgroup analysis with amyloid-positive MCI participants also showed that only NfL and GFAP were the only significant predictors of cognitive decline among plasma biomarkers. Overall, NfL and tau-SUVR showed the highest prognostic values (hazard ratios of 7.3 and 5.9). Lastly, we demonstrated that adding NfL to the inclusion criteria could reduce the sample sizes of future AD clinical trials by up to one-fourth in subjects with amyloid-PET positivity or by half in subjects with amyloid-PET and tau-PET positivity.
conclusionsPlasma NfL and GFAP predict cognitive decline in a similar manner to traditional imaging techniques in amyloid-positive MCI patients. Hence, even though they are non-specific biomarkers of AD, both can be implemented in memory clinic workups as important prognostic biomarkers. Likewise, future clinical trials might employ plasma biomarkers as additional inclusion criteria to stratify patients at higher risk of cognitive decline to reduce sample sizes and enhance effectiveness.
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