Whole blood transcript and protein abundance of the vascular endothelial growth factor family relate to cognitive performance

• The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family of genes has been implicated in the clinical devel-opment of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). A previous study identified associations between gene expression of VEGF family members in the prefrontal cortex and cognitive performance and AD pathology. This study explored if those associations were also observed in the blood. Consistent with previous observations in brain tissue, higher blood gene expression of placental growth factor (PGF) was associated with a faster rate of memory decline (p= 0.04). Higher protein abundance of FMS-related receptor tyrosine kinase 4 (FLT4) in blood was associated with biomarker levels indicative of lower amyloid and tau pathology, op-posite the direction observed in brain. Also, higher gene expression of VEGFB in blood was associated with better baseline memory (p= 0.008). Notably, we observed that higher gene expression of VEGFB in blood was associated with lower expression of VEGFB in the brain (r =-0.19, p= 0.02). Together, these re-sults suggest that the VEGFB, FLT4, and PGF alterations in the AD brain may be detectable in the blood compartment.Published by Elsevier Inc.This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper -- Neurovetenskaper (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Basic Medicine -- Neurosciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Alzheimer?s disease

Mild Cognitive Impairment

VEGF

Blood biomarkers

alzheimers-disease

vegf

expression

Geriatrics & Gerontology

Neurosciences & Neurology

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)