An international team led by researchers from the Pascual Maragall Foundation confirmed in a study with a large cohort and biomarkers the link between poor sleep quality and an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in people without cognitive impairment.

The results of an analysis by the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) of the Pascual Maragall Foundation have been published in the scientific journal Brain Communications and may have implications for future treatments.

The relationship between sleep quality and Alzheimer’s disease has been studied in previous studies, but mostly based on epidemiological data – comparing the frequency of symptoms or diseases – and in small population samples.

With these data, the researchers were able to confirm the hypothesis that lack of sleep is associated with these biomarkers.

This study, released this Thursday, used the largest cohort to date (the European Longitudinal Cohort Study for the Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia) and added some cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers that predict future increases in pathology in people without identifiable Alzheimer’s symptoms. .

With these data, the researchers were able to confirm the hypothesis that lack of sleep is associated with these biomarkers. In particular, the BBRC team, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Bristol (UK), analyzed data from 1,168 adults over 50, including Alzheimer’s biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid, cognition and quality of life. dream

“Through these analyses, we were able to explore associations between key Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers and various measures of sleep quality, such as overall sleep score, duration, efficiency, and change,” said Dr. Oriol Grau, researcher at BBRC. .

By analyzing CSF samples from 332 participants at baseline and after an average of 1.5 years, the researchers were able to evaluate the impact of baseline sleep quality on changes in Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers over time.

Among other results, short sleep durations of less than seven hours have been shown to be associated with higher levels of tau proteins, key biomarkers for measuring Alzheimer’s disease risk in the preclinical phase, i.e. before the onset of symptoms. illness.

“Our results further support the hypothesis that sleep interruption may be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Laura Stankeviciute, also a BBRC researcher.

“Therefore, future research is needed to test the effectiveness of preventive practices aimed at improving sleep in the presymptomatic stages of the disease in order to reduce the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease,” he added.