The influence of insulin resistance on cerebrospinal fluid and plasma biomarkers of Alzheimer’s pathology

BACKGROUND: Insulin resistance (IR) has previously been associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD), although the relationship between IR and AD is not yet clear. Here, we examined the influence of IR on AD using plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers related to IR and AD in cognitively healthy men. We also aimed to characterise the shared protein signatures between IR and AD. METHODS: Fifty-eight cognitively healthy men, 28 IR and 30 non-IR (age and APOE ε4 matched), were drawn from the Metabolic Syndrome in Men study in Kuopio, Finland. CSF AD biomarkers (amyloid β-peptide (Aβ), total tau and tau phosphorylated at the Thr181 epitope) were examined with respect to IR. Targeted proteomics using ELISA and Luminex xMAP assays were performed to assess the influence of IR on previously identified CSF and plasma protein biomarker candidates of AD pathology. Furthermore, CSF and plasma SOMAscan was performed to discover proteins that associate with IR and CSF AD biomarkers. RESULTS: CSF AD biomarkers did not differ between IR and non-IR groups, although plasma insulin correlated with CSF Aβ/tau across the whole cohort. In total, 200 CSF and 487 plasma proteins were differentially expressed between IR and non-IR subjects, and significantly enriched pathways, many of which have been previously implicated in AD, were identified. CSF and plasma proteins significantly associated with CSF AD biomarkers were also discovered, and those sensitive to both IR and AD were identified. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that IR is not directly related to the level of CSF AD pathology in cognitively healthy men. Proteins that associated with both AD and IR are potential markers indicative of shared pathology. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13195-017-0258-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.