Early microglial and astrocyte reactivity in preclinical Alzheimer's disease

Introduction: The role of neuroinflammation in preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains unclear. Methods: We assessed changes in microglial and astrocytic biomarkers in a well-characterized cohort of 211 cognitively unimpaired individuals. Structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Fernández-Matarrubia, Marta; Valera-Barrero, Andrea; Renuncio-García, Mónica; Aguilella, Marcos; Lage, Carmen; López-García, Sara; Ocejo-Vinyals, Javier Gonzalo; Martínez-Dubarbie, Francisco; Corrales-Pardo, Andrea; Bravo González, María Paz; López Hoyos, Marcos; Irure-Ventura, Juan; Blennow, Kaj; Ashton, Nicholas J.; Zetterberg, Henrik; Sánchez-Juan, Pascual|||0000-0002-6081-8037; Rodríguez Rodríguez, Eloy Manuel
Format: Article
Publication date:2025
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Cantabria (UC)
Repository:UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.unican.es:10902/37729
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10902/37729
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Astrocyte
Biomarkers
Chitinase-3-like protein 1 (YKL-40)
Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)
Microglia
Preclinical Alzheimer´s disease
S-100 calcium-binding protein beta (S100β)
Soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (sTREM2)
Structural equation modeling
Description
Summary:Introduction: The role of neuroinflammation in preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains unclear. Methods: We assessed changes in microglial and astrocytic biomarkers in a well-characterized cohort of 211 cognitively unimpaired individuals. Structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously assess all relationships among microglial and astrocytic responses and AD pathological events. Results: Plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (sTREM2) were increased in preclinical AD. Plasma GFAP showed an inverse bidirectional relationship with CSF amyloid beta (Ab42/40. CSF sTREM2 directly influenced CSF phosphorylated tau-181 (p-tau181) and neurogranin, and correlated with CSF S100 calcium-binding protein beta (S100b). CSF chitinase-3-like protein 1 (YKL-40) mediated the association between CSF p-tau181 and total tau (t-tau), whereas CSF S100b and neurofilament light showed mutual influence. Discussion: Our findings suggest that microglial and astrocyte reactivity, measured through fluid biomarkers, occur early and impact the amyloid cascade on the preclinical Alzheimer´s continuum. Specifically, GFAP influences amyloid accumulation, sTREM2 promotes tau pathology, and YKL-40 and S100b contribute to the progression of downstream neurodegenerative changes.