Table 1. Associations between serum metabolite concentrations and brain amyloid-β deposition, rates of brain atrophy, and longitudinal changes in global brain WML burden–BLSA.
| Global DVR (amyloid-β deposition) − amyloid +ve sample | |||||||||
| Total (n = 36) | Male (n = 21) | Female (n = 15) | |||||||
| coef | pval | coef | pval | coef | pval | ||||
| 7α-OHC | −1.439 | 0.034 | −1.568 | 0.041 | −1.007 | 0.57 | |||
| CDCA | 2.91 | 0.063 | 2.518 | 0.176 | 4.241 | 0.245 | |||
| CA | 3.198 | 0.05 | 3.209 | 0.104 | 2.993 | 0.446 | |||
| Precuneus DVR (amyloid-β deposition) − amyloid +ve sample | |||||||||
| Total (n = 36) | Male (n = 21) | Female (n = 15) | |||||||
| coef | pval | coef | pval | coef | pval | ||||
| 7α-OHC | −1.197 | 0.033 | −1.447 | 0.022 | 0.09 | 0.948 | |||
| CDCA | 2.418 | 0.061 | 2.06 | 0.186 | 4.766 | 0.082 | |||
| CA | 1.966 | 0.152 | 1.994 | 0.236 | 2.062 | 0.501 | |||
| Brain atrophy | |||||||||
| Total (n = 134) | Male (n = 62) | Female (n = 72) | |||||||
| coef | pval | pval (FDR) | coef | pval | pval (FDR) | coef | pval | pval (FDR) | |
| CDCA (Parietal GM) | 0.034 | 0.426 | 0.719 | 0.289 | <0.001 | 0.003 | −0.112 | 0.014 | 0.119 |
| CDCA (Precuneus) | 0.019 | 0.1 | 0.491 | 0.094 | <0.001 | <0.001 | −0.022 | 0.101 | 0.299 |
| CA (Parietal GM) | 0.022 | 0.577 | 0.797 | 0.207 | 0.001 | 0.013 | −0.154 | 0.001 | 0.038 |
| CA (Precuneus) | 0.016 | 0.139 | 0.602 | 0.069 | <0.001 | <0.001 | −0.031 | 0.02 | 0.119 |
| WML | |||||||||
| Total (n = 134) | Male (n = 62) | Female (n = 72) | |||||||
| coef | pval | coef | pval | coef | pval | ||||
| 7α-OHC | 0.015 | 0.088 | −0.01 | 0.421 | 0.031 | 0.01 | |||
| CDCA | −0.001 | 0.892 | −0.009 | 0.05 | 0.005 | 0.342 | |||
| CA | −0.001 | 0.769 | −0.001 | 0.763 | 0 | 0.992 | |||
Significance threshold set at p = 0.05 for amyloid-β deposition and WMLs and FDR-corrected p = 0.05 for brain atrophy. Coefficients in green indicate that lower serum concentration of the metabolite is significantly associated with higher levels of brain amyloid-β, faster accumulation of WML accumulation, or faster brain atrophy. Coefficients in red indicate that lower serum concentration of the metabolite is significantly associated with lower levels of brain amyloid-β, slower accumulation of WML, or slower brain atrophy. Coef and pval highlighted in gray were not statistically significant.
7α-OHC, 7α-hydroxycholesterol; BLSA, Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging; CA, cholic acid; CDCA, chenodeoxycholic acid; cDVR, mean cortical DVR; coef, coefficient from linear regression model or mixed effects model; DVR, distribution volume ratio; FDR, false discovery rate (Benjamini–Hochberg) corrected p-value; GM, gray matter; pval, p-value; WML, white matter lesion.