Affiliations: [a] Central Laboratory, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| [b] Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| [c] Beijing Geriatric Medical Research Center, Beijing, China
| [d] Center of Alzheimer’s Disease, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, China
| [e] National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Beijing, China
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Rong Wang and Ying Han, PhD, No.45, Changchun Street, Beijing 100053, P.R. China. Tel./Fax: +86 1063159572; E-mails: wangrong@xwh.ccmu.edu.cn (Rong Wang); hanying@xwh.ccmu.edu.cn (Ying Han).
Abstract: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Urinary Alzheimer-associated neuronal thread protein (AD7c-NTP) has been identified as a biomarker for AD. It was hypothesized that if urinary AD7c-NTP were also elevated in SCD, as it is in prodromal AD (mild cognitive impairment stage), it could be a convenient and efficient clinical biomarker for the early diagnosis of SCD. SCD is often accompanied by a depressive state (DS), and the impact of DS on urinary AD7c-NTP levels remains unknown. A total of 297 right-handed Chinese Han subjects were recruited, including 98 subjects with SCD, 92 patients with DS, and 107 well-matched cognitively normal controls (NC). The levels of AD7c-NTP in urine samples were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay AD7c-NTP kit. Our results demonstrated that urinary AD7c-NTP levels in the SCD group (0.7561±0.5657 ng/mL) were not significantly higher than in either the DS (0.7527±0.5607 ng/mL) or NC (0.7214±0.5077 ng/mL) groups. Furthermore, urinary AD7c-NTP levels were not correlated with Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Hamilton Anxiety Scale scores, but they were negatively associated with Mini-Mental State Examination scores (r = –0.222, p = 0.033) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Basic scores (r = –0.207, p = 0.048). Urinary AD7c-NTP level is not elevated in SCD and is unaffected by DS. Urinary AD7c-NTP may therefore not be a good potential biomarker for SCD and DS, although it may become elevated with more severe cognitive decline.
