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Associations of plasma persistent organic pollutants with brain atrophy, cognitive decline and risk of dementia in older adults

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP), including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides, are established neurotoxicants in experimental models; yet it remains uncertain whether exposures in the general population increase the risk to develop brain aging pathologies. We assessed the prospective associations of plasma POP concentrations with three dementia-related outcomes in a population-based cohort of older adults. METHODS: Analyses included 515 participants from the Three-City Study, free of dementia at baseline at the time of blood measurements (1999-2000, mean age 72.5), who underwent up to 8 repeated assessments of cognitive function and dementia over 17 years and up to 3 neuroimaging examinations over 10 years. Plasma concentrations of 15 PCBs, 12 organochlorine pesticides and 1 brominated flame retardant were measured by gas chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (detection rate ≥5 %), and a POP score summarizing overall exposure was derived via factorial analysis. Associations with dementia risk, longitudinal changes in cognitive function (composite measure of four tests) and in brain volume (medial temporal lobe) were analyzed using Cox and linear mixed models, adjusted for baseline age, sex, education, apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype, body mass index and total lipid concentrations. RESULTS: In multivariable-adjusted models, neither individual POPs nor the total POP score were significantly and consistently associated with dementia-related outcomes. Significant interactions were observed between APOE genotype and highly-chlorinated PCBs (congeners 180, 194, and 196-203) across all outcomes (p for interaction ≤0.05), whereby adverse associations were seen in carriers of the APOE-ɛ4 allele, whereas opposing trends were observed in non-carriers. CONCLUSION: Overall, this prospective study does not provide robust evidence to support an adverse association between exposure to POPs in the general population and the risk of all-cause dementia, cognitive decline, or brain atrophy in older adults.

Source: Environment International

DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2025.109756