Ceramides Predict Vascular Brain Injury and Dementia

A study in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology details the role of plasma ceramides in dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their potential as a blood-based biomarker, reports EurekAlert . "Our findings indicate that circulating ceramide ratios may be useful predictors of future dementia risk and may have a role in predicting dementia at an early, preclinical stage, when the greatest opportunity for disease modification exists," said Emer McGrath at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "However, these results will require replication in other cohorts." Ceramides can be extracted from the blood, a far less invasive and preferable alternative to collecting cerebrospinal fluid via spinal tap. The researchers compared levels of very-long chain and long-chain ceramides in blood samples from about 1,900 participants, then analyzed the risk of dementia, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) structural measures of vascular brain injury, and ß-amyloid burden on brain positron emission tomography. An elevated ratio of very-long-chain to long-chain ceramides corresponded to a 27 percent reduction in the risk of dementia and AD dementia, as well as a lower burden of white matter injury on brain MRI. It may be possible that pharmacological inhibition of long-chain ceramide synthesis could reduce or prevent the progression of AD dementia through prevention of ß-amyloid accumulation.