Immunity and amyloid beta, total tau and neurofilament light chain: Findings from a community-based cohort study.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: We investigated how components of immunity relate to biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in plasma and explored the influence of AD genetic risk factors in the population-based Rotterdam Study. METHODS: In 7397 persons, we calculated the granulocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (GLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII). In 3615 of these persons, plasma amyloid-beta (Aß)42 and Aß40 were measured. Next, we constructed an overall genetic risk score (GRS) based on genome-wide significant variants, both including and excluding APOE ε4. RESULTS: All innate immunity phenotypes were related to higher Aß, most strongly with a doubling in GLR leading to a 1.9% higher Aß42 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.4 to 3.3%) and 3.2% higher Aß40 (95% CI 2.0 to 4.3%). Higher AD GRS including APOE ε4 was associated with higher immunity markers. DISCUSSION: Higher levels of immunity markers were associated with higher Aß in plasma. Participants with a higher genetic predisposition to AD had higher immunity markers, where these effects were mainly driven by APOE ε4.