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This is a monthly e-newsletter from the Lifebrain Horizon2020 project.
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Lifebrain Monthly E-newsletter September 2020
 

(For a better quality reading we suggest you to view this email in your web browser).

The Lifebrain e-newsletter is aimed at the general public, patient organisations, policy-makers, and researchers interested in brain and cognition.

Lifebrain newsletters are also collected and available on the project website.

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Biomarkers of the brain

The brain is essential for living a good life. By taking a simple blood test, it is possible to get  some information about the brain. This is because biomarkers in the blood can give an indication of the biological state of the brain.
Two types of biomarkers are relevant for brain health – general and brain-specific.

Source: Colourbox

General biomarkers

The general biomarkers are important for the brain as part of the body, but not specific to the brain itself. Examples of such blood markers are:

  • Vitamin D is a vitamin in the diet (fatty fish and cod liver oil). Low levels are associated with thin cortex of the brain. Vitamin D is the precursor to an active hormone functioning as a “switch” for turning on production of proteins related to bone health, immune response, cell growth and metabolism.
  • Cholesterol is an important building block in all cell membranes. Due to high content of “hard” (saturated) fat in the diet, blood cholesterol can be so high that it accumulates in arteries and damages tissue also in the brain.
  • Omega-3 fatty acids are important building blocks in most cell membranes of the brain, and many people have little of these essential fatty acids in their diet. In addition, omega-3 as well as omega-6 fatty acids are precursors for important signal substances in the brain. These signal substances are important for local blood circulation and repairing of damage in the brain.
Source: Colourbox
  • Lipidomics include most types of lipids such as diacylglycerol, which potentially has an impact on sleep and might help us understand how sleep is affecting lipid metabolism. In Lifebrain, we currently examine if sleep disturbances are associated with blood diacylglycerol.    
  • HbA1c is glycated haemoglobin, and thus a long-term marker of high blood glucose concentration and diabetes. HbA1c is a good indicator of metabolic health. Values above 6.7 % suggest a high risk of having diabetes mellitus. It is well known that diabetes is associated with poor brain health in relation to conditions like dementia and stroke, probably by “harming” blood vessels and several proteins.
  • Inflammation related factors for e.g. interleukin 6 (IL6) and C-reactive protein (CRP). Both these proteins are linked to immune defense and are relatively unspecific markers of inflammation or tissue damage, which also may include the brain.

All these factors are of importance for brain function because they represent building blocks in the brain.

Specific biomarkers for the brain

In addition to the general markers for brain function mentioned above, there are certain biomarkers that are more specific to the brain like:

  • tau protein
  • amyloid beta and
  • neurofilament light
Tau (similar in structure to an entangled rope that can be observed in a microscope) protein and amyloid beta have been linked to Alzheimer´s disease for quite some years without showing convincing causal relationship to these proteins in intervention studies. Nevertheless, tau protein and amyloid beta are used as diagnostic criteria to Alzheimer`s disease.
Source: Colourbox

Neurofilament light is a subunit of neurofilaments, which are cylindrical proteins exclusively located in neurons. It is released to a large extent with high age and damage of nerve cells. It is is a marker of more general neurodegeneration and requires a special sensitive method to quantify the quite low concentrations in blood.
 
In Lifebrain we focus on measuring several hundreds of the general biomarkers to get information about the central nervous system. We expect to find some interesting associations related to sleep from the more than 1700 subjects we are currently analyzing.

Further reading:

Source of newsletter

This newsletter was edited by Christian A. Drevon, Lifebrain researcher. Professor emeritus of Medicine (nutrition) at the University of Oslo, and consultant in the analytical contract laboratory Vitas Ltd. in Oslo Science Park. Has studied effects of nutrients and physical activity on health, with special focus on molecular nutrition and biomarkers. 

CONTACT US

Your comments are always valuable to us, so do not hesitate to contact us.

Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition at the University of Oslo
Kristine B. Walhovd project coordinator
Barbara B. Friedman administrative coordinator
e-mail: info@lifebrain.uio.no
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This project has received funding from the European Union ’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 732592.
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