The relationship between uric acid and brain health from observational studies

This study conducts a systematic literature review and meta-analysis regarding the potential influence of serum uric acid levels on cerebral small vessel diseases and the cognitive status in the prodromal stages of dementia. We identified four different cerebral small vessel diseases and three specific domains of cognitive performance to be considered in the literature search. The analysis contained 14 studies (13 cross-sectional design and one longitudinal design) with 11,502 participants measuring the relationship between uric acid and cerebral small vessel disease. In both continuous and categorical analyses, significant associations were found between hyperuricemia and cerebral small vessel diseases (continuous data: pooled OR: 1.00, 95%CI: 1.00-1.01 and categorical data: pooled OR: 1.42, 95%CI: 1.15-1.75). For the relationship between uric acid and cognitive performance, 19 studies with 49,901 participants were considered, including eight cohort studies, and 11 cross-sectional studies. The cross-sectional data showed that a marginal relationship existed between uric acid and global cognition (β: 0.00, 95%CI: -0.01-0.00). The pooled analysis of cohort studies indicated that higher uric acid had a deleterious effect on attention and executive function (continuous data: β: -0.02, 95%CI: -0.04-0.00 and categorical data: β: -0.03, 95%CI: -0.07-0.00). Conclusion: Our study indicated that a higher level of uric acid had an adverse effect on brain health. Furthermore, a high level of uric acid is related to cognitive decline in attention and executive function, which may exist a long time before the diagnosis of dementia.