Inflammation-related Cognitive Risk Score (ICRS) as tool for predicting cognitive decline in older adults

Objectives The prevalence of dementia increased exponentially with the aging population globally. Early detection of cognitive decline at prodromal stage allows room for intervention to prevent or delay the progress of dementia. This study aimed to identify a simple and accurate blood test to identify older adults who are at high risk of cognitive decline.

Inflammation-related marker panel was derived from gene expression data from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and Inflammation-related Cognitive Risk Score (ICRS) was constructed to predict the risk of cognitive decline. 142 non-demented older adults from the community were recruited and followed-up for two years. RT-qPCR was performed for genes included in the marker panel using blood samples collected at baseline and ICRS was calculated for each older adults. Cognitive assessments were performed at baseline and 2-year follow-up and ICRS was used to identify older adults who were at high risk of cognitive decline.

ICRS was significantly higher in older adults without cognitive decline when compared to those with cognitive decline (p=0.011). When the ICRS was further adjusted by vascular factors as ICRS-adj, the differentiation was significantly improved (p<0.001) with increased sensitivity and specificity.

Our result showed that ICRS-adj can predict cognitive decline with high sensitivity and specificity and this will be beneficial to identify older adults who are at high risk of dementia for early intervention. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Funding Statement This study was funded by the Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF) (Ref no. 09200246) and HMRF Commissioned Research (Ref no. MHS-P1(Part3)-CUHK), Health Bureau, Hong Kong SAR Government. Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The study was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Data Availability All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors