Casaletto KB, Saloner R, Kornak J, Staffaroni AM, Villeda S, Paolillo E, VandeBunte AM, Cadwallader CJ, Lario Lago A, Webb J, Chen C, Rascovsky K, Miyagawa T, Ramos EM, Masdeu JC, Pantelyat A, Tartaglia MC, Bozoki A, Pressman PS, Rademakers R, Kremers W, Darby R, Younes K, Pascual B, Ghoshal N, Lapid M, Mackenzie IRA, Li J, Hsiung GR, Hall JN, Yutsis MV, Litvan I, Henderson VW, Sivasankaran R, Worringer K, Domoto-Reilly K, Synder A, Loureiro J, Kramer JH, Heuer H, Forsberg LK, Rosen HJ, Boeve B, Rojas JC, and Boxer AL
The largest risk factor for dementia is age. Heterochronic blood exchange studies have uncovered age-related blood factors that demonstrate 'pro-aging' or 'pro-youthful' effects on the mouse brain. The clinical relevance and combined effects of these factors for humans is unclear. We examined five previously identified brain rejuvenation factors in cerebrospinal fluid of adults with autosomal dominant forms of frontotemporal dementia and sporadic Alzheimer's disease. Our frontotemporal dementia cohort included 100 observationally followed adults carrying autosomal dominant frontotemporal dementia mutations (M age = 49.6; 50% female; 43% C9orf72 , 24% GRN , 33% MAPT ) and 62 non-carriers (M age = 52.6; 45% female) with cerebrospinal fluid analysed on Somascan, and longitudinal (M visits = 3 years, range 1-7 years) neuropsychological and functional assessments and plasma neurofilament light chain. Our Alzheimer's disease cohort included 35 adults with sporadic Alzheimer's disease (M age = 69.4; 60% female) and 56 controls (M age = 68.8, 50% female) who completed the same cerebrospinal fluid and clinical outcome measures cross-sectionally. Levels of C-C motif chemokine ligand 11, C-C motif chemokine ligand 2, beta-2-micorglobulin, bone gamma-carboxyglutamate protein (aka Osteocalcin) and colony stimulating factor 2 in cerebrospinal fluid were linearly combined into a composite score, with higher values reflecting 'pro-youthful' levels. In genetic frontotemporal dementia, higher baseline cerebrospinal fluid rejuvenation proteins predicted slower decline across cognitive, functional, and neurofilament light chain trajectories; estimates were similar across genotypes. In transdiagnostic analyses, higher cerebrospinal fluid rejuvenation proteins associated with better functional, cognitive, and neurofilament light chain outcomes in adults with sporadic Alzheimer's disease. Proteins with pre-clinical evidence for brain rejuvenation show translational clinical relevance in adults with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias and warrant further investigation., Competing Interests: B.F.B. has served as an investigator for clinical trials sponsored by Alector, Biogen, Transposon and Cognition Therapeutics. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Tau Consortium, which is funded by the Rainwater Charitable Foundation. He receives research support from NIH. H.B. receives research support from the NIH. A.L.B. receives research support from the NIH, the Tau Research Consortium, the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, Bluefield Project to Cure Frontotemporal Dementia, Corticobasal Degeneration Solutions, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Association. He has served as a consultant for Aeovian, AGTC, Alector, Arkuda, Arvinas, Boehringer Ingelheim, Denali, GSK, Life Edit, Humana, Oligomerix, Oscotec, Roche, TrueBinding and Wave and received research support from Biogen, Eisai and Regeneron. A.L.B. receives research support from the NIH, the Tau Research Consortium, the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, Bluefield Project to Cure Frontotemporal Dementia, Corticobasal Degeneration Solutions, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Association. He has served as a consultant for Aeovian, AGTC, Alector, Arkuda, Arvinas, Boehringer Ingelheim, Denali, GSK, Life Edit, Humana, Oligomerix, Oscotec, Roche, TrueBinding, Wave, Merck and received research support from Biogen, Eisai and Regeneron. K.D.-R. receives research support from the NIH and serves as an investigator for a clinical trial sponsored by Lawson Health Research Institute. K.F. receives research support from the NIH. A.F. has served as a consultant for DiamiR, Diadem, Roche Diagnostics, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Cyclo Therapeutics, Inc. J.A.F. receives research support from the NIH and is a consultant for Alector. T.F. receives research support from the NIH. L.F. receives research support from the NIH. R.G. receives research support from the NIH. T.F.G. receives research support from the NIH. N.G. has participated or is currently participating in clinical trials of anti-dementia drugs sponsored by Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly/Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Janssen Immunotherapy, Novartis, Pfizer, Wyeth, SNIFF (The Study of Nasal Insulin to Fight Forgetfulness) and the A4 (The Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s Disease) trial. She receives research support from Tau Consortium and the Association for Frontotemporal Dementia and is funded by the NIH. J.G. receives research support from the NIH, Huntington’s Disease Society of America and the New York State Department of Health (RFA 1510130358). J.G.-R. receives research support from the NIH and is on the editorial board of Neurology. N.G.-R. receives royalties from UpToDate and has participated in multi-centre therapy studies by sponsored by Biogen, TauRx and Lilly. He receives research support from the NIH. M.G. receives grant support from the NIH, Avid and Piramal; participates in clinical trials sponsored by Biogen, TauRx and Alector; serves as a consultant to Bracco and UCB; and serves on the editorial board of Neurology. G.-Y.H. has served as an investigator for clinical trials sponsored by AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Roche/Genentech. He receives research support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Alzheimer Society of British Columbia. E.D.H. receives research support from the NIH. D.I. receives support from the NIH, BrightFocus Foundation and Penn Institute on Aging. D.T.J. receives research support from the NIH and the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics. K.K. served on the Data Safety Monitoring Board for Takeda Global Research and Development Center and data monitoring boards of Pfizer and Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy and received research support from Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and the NIH. D. K. serves on the data and safety monitoring board of the DIAN-TU study; is a site principal investigator for clinical trials sponsored by Biogen, Lilly and the University of Southern California; and is funded by the NIH. J. K. has provided expert witness testimony for Teva Pharmaceuticals in Forest Laboratories Inc. et al. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., case numbers 1:14-cv-00121 and 1:14-cv-00686 (D. Del. filed 31 January 2014 and 30 May 2014 regarding the drug Memantine) and for Apotex/HEC/Ezra in Novartis AG et al. v. Apotex Inc., case number 1:15-cv-975 (D. Del. filed 26 October 2015 regarding the drug Fingolimod). He has also given testimony on behalf of Puma Biotechnology in Hsingching Hsu et al., versus Puma Biotechnology, Inc., et al. 2018 regarding the drug Neratinib. He receives research support from the NIH. W.K. receives research funding from AstraZeneca, Biogen, Roche, the Department of Defense and the NIH. M.I.L. receives research support from the NIH. I.L.'s research is supported by the National Institutes of Health grants: 2R01AG038791-06A, U01NS100610, U01NS80818, R25NS098999; U19 AG063911-1 and 1R21NS114764-01A1; the Michael J Fox Foundation, Parkinson Foundation, Lewy Body Association, CurePSP, Roche, Abbvie, Biogen, Centogene. EIP-Pharma, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Brain Neurotherapy Bio and United Biopharma SRL—UCB. She is a Scientific advisor for Amydis and Rossy Center for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy University of Toronto. She receives her salary from the University of California San Diego and as Chief Editor of Frontiers in Neurology. R.R. receives research funding from the NIH and the Bluefield Project to Cure Frontotemporal Dementia. R.R. is on the scientific advisory board of Arkuda Therapeutics and receives royalties from progranulin-related patent. She is also on the scientific advisory board of the Fondation Alzheimer. E.M.R. receives research support from the NIH. K.P.R. receives research support from the NIH and the National Science Foundation and serves on a medical advisory board for Eli Lilly. K.R. receives research support from the NIH. E.D.R. has received research support from the NIH, the Bluefield Project to Cure Frontotemporal Dementia, the Alzheimer's Association, the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, the BrightFocus Foundation, and Alector; has served as a consultant for AGTC and on a data monitoring committee for Lilly; and owns intellectual property related to tau and progranulin. J.C.R. receives research support from the NIH and is a site principal investigator for clinical trials sponsored by Eli Lilly and Eisai. H.J.R. has received research support from Biogen Pharmaceuticals, has consulting agreements with Wave Neuroscience, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Eisai Pharmaceuticals, and Genentech, and receives research support from the NIH and the state of California. R.S. receives support from the NIA, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation and Acadia Pharmaceuticals. A.M.S. received research support from the NIA/NIH, the Bluefield Project to Cure FTD, and the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation. He has provided consultation to Alector, Lilly, Passage Bio, and Takeda. M.C.T. has served as an investigator for clinical trials sponsored by Biogen, Avanex, Green Valley, Roche/Genentech, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly/Avid Radiopharmaceuticals and Janssen. She receives research support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research., (© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain.)