Uric Acid and High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Are Differently Associated with Alzheimer's Disease and Vascular Dementia.
Uric acid (UA) is a major contributor to naturally-occurring antioxidant activity and is thought to have protective effects against neurodegenerative processes. However, UA is also implicated as a risk factor in vascular, including cerebrovascular, disease. Its association with, and role in, dementia and its component diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) remains unclear and inconsistently studied. Changes in blood lipids, particularly cholesterol measures, have also been implicated in dementias although the relationship or interactions with UA have been little studied.We have measured plasma UA and lipids taken from 187 subjects first attending a general hospital neurology department for symptoms associated with dementia, and from a series of 79 healthy control subjects. Diagnoses of AD and VaD were made following neuroimaging; laboratory measures were compared between dementia and control groups and between AD and VaD subgroups. No overall change in UA was seen in dementia, although a substantial and highly significant reduction was found in the AD patients. Reduced values in total cholesterol, HDL, and LDL were found in dementia, independent of statin treatment. Further investigation found a significant reduction of HDL only in the VaD group, while total cholesterol was significantly reduced in both AD and VaD subjects.These findings indicate that in our Chinese sample, UA deficits are specifically associated with AD, while deficits in HDL cholesterol found in dementia tend to be greater in VaD.
['Liu|Hanxiang|H|', 'Reynolds|Gavin P|GP|', 'Wei|Xianwen|X|']
D000368:Aged D000544:Alzheimer Disease D015415:Biomarkers D001921:Brain D008076:Cholesterol, HDL D015140:Dementia, Vascular D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D012307:Risk Factors D014280:Triglycerides D014527:Uric Acid
uric acid cholesterol vascular dementia antioxidant HDL LDL Alzheimer’s disease cerebrovascular disease neurodegeneration