Correlations between retinal thickness, brain and blood biomarkers in preclinical Alzheimer's disease: pilot
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Retinal deposits of amyloid beta (Aβ) have been identified in the eye and has shown to have a greater impact on retinal thickness than age-related effects. Therefore, retinal thickness could serve as a diagnostic marker, warranting further investigation as demand for accessible Alzheimer's disease (AD) screening grows. This study aims to evaluate correlations between blood-based AD biomarkers and retinal thickness across different eye regions in amyloid-negative and amyloid-positive individuals. METHOD: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and AD plasma biomarkers NFL, Aβ42, Aβ40, GFAP were analysed in cognitively normal individuals (MMSE >24) aged 58-84 years, who previously undertook Positron Emission Tomography (PET) amyloid imaging. A centiloid (CL) cut-off score of 20 was used to subgroup recruited participants into amyloid-positive (n = 5) and amyloid-negative (n = 5). Data was analysed in reference to eye (LE/RE), image location (optic disc, macula) and ETDRS (early treatment diabetic retinal study) regions. R software was used to calculate Spearman correlation coefficients, with a significance level of p < 0.05. RESULT: Comparing correlation coefficients across both groups demonstrated the amyloid-negative group having strong negative correlations between CL scores and total retinal thickness in only the peripapillary region (r = -0.71 to -0.97, p = <0.05), where the amyloid-positive group had negative correlations in both macular and peripapillary regions (r = -0.71 to -1, p = <0.05). The amyloid-negative group exhibited strong positive correlations with macular (r = 0.8 to 0.94, p = <0.05) and outer disc peripapillary (r = 0.7, p = <0.05) thickness to the Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio. The amyloid-positive groups retinal thicknesses across various regions had stronger negative associations of GFAP and NFL (r = -0.7 to -0.9, p = <0.05) than the amyloid-negative group (r = -0.63 to -0.8, p = <0.05). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that total retinal thickness in the macular and peripapillary regions via OCT may correlate with AD biomarkers. Increased retinal thickness were associated with increased Aβ42/AΒ40 ratio and decreased retinal thickness associated with higher brain amyloid CL scores, and blood-based GFAP and NFL biomarkers. Further study in larger cohorts is required to validate results.
Source: Alzheimer s & Dementia
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,200
OpenAlex ID: W7117307871
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