Affiliation:
1. MRC Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing at UCL University College London London UK
2. Dementia Research Centre UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology London UK
3. School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences King's College London London UK
4. Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering Centre for Medical Image Computing (CMIC) University College London (UCL) London UK
5. Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine London UK
6. Division of Infections and Cancer Epidemiology German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg Germany
Abstract
AbstractINTRODUCTIONWe aimed to investigate associations between common infections and neuroimaging markers of dementia risk (brain volume, hippocampal volume, white matter lesions) across three population‐based studies.METHODSWe tested associations between serology measures (pathogen serostatus, cumulative burden, continuous antibody responses) and outcomes using linear regression, including adjustments for total intracranial volume and scanner/clinic information (basic model), age, sex, ethnicity, education, socioeconomic position, alcohol, body mass index, and smoking (fully adjusted model). Interactions between serology measures and apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype were tested. Findings were meta‐analyzed across cohorts (Nmain = 2632; NAPOE‐interaction = 1810).RESULTSSeropositivity to John Cunningham virus associated with smaller brain volumes in basic models (β = −3.89 mL [−5.81, −1.97], Padjusted < 0.05); these were largely attenuated in fully adjusted models (β = −1.59 mL [−3.55, 0.36], P = 0.11). No other relationships were robust to multiple testing corrections and sensitivity analyses, but several suggestive associations were observed.DISCUSSIONWe did not find clear evidence for relationships between common infections and markers of dementia risk. Some suggestive findings warrant testing for replication.