Author(s): Silke Kern*, Jürgen Kern*, Henrik Zetterberg , Anna Dittrich, Felicia Ahlner, Anna Zettergren, Margda Waern, Nazib M Seidu, Tobias Skillbäck, Ulf Andreasson, Kaj Blennow, Ingmar Skoog
Objective: It is debated whether alcohol use increases or decreases risk for cognitive impairment and dementia, or Alzheimer`s disease (AD). Therefore, studies on the influence of alcohol use on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for the earliest preclinical phase of AD are needed.
Methods: The sample (n=301 70-year-old women and men, whereof 246 cognitively unimpaired and 55 with mild cognitive deficits) was derived from the 2014-2016 examinations of the Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort Studies. Information on alcohol consumption (g/week and type of alcohol) was collected and CSF amyloid-β1-42 (Aβ42), total-tau (T-tau), phospho-tau (P-tau), neurofilament light protein (NfL) and neurogranin (Ng) were measured. Correlations between the CSF biomarkers and alcohol consumption were assessed, adjusted for age and education.
Results: There were no correlations between weekly alcohol consumption and any of the CSF markers studied. However, linear regression analysis showed an association of alcohol consumption with CSF Ng (β=0.21, p=0.011), and an interaction by sex (β=-0.21, p=0.019). When stratifying by sex, there was an association between alcohol consumption and higher CSF Ng in women (r=0.21, p= 0.025), but no other associations. There were no correlations between consumption of specific types of alcohol (spirits, white wine, red wine, fortified wine, and beer) and any of the biomarkers studied in the total sample. When stratifying by sex, there was an association between higher red wine consumption and higher CSF Ng (r=0.24, p= 0.008), higher T-tau (r=0.23, p= 0.014) and higher P-tau (r= 0.22, p= 0.017) in women.
Conclusion: Our findings indicate that higher alcohol use in older cognitively unimpaired women correlates with a biomarker of synaptic dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease, which is an important observation in a time when alcohol use is increasing among women.
