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Updated: Jan 7, 2026
Dried Blood Spot Collection of Health Biomarkers to Maximize Participation in Population Studies
Published on: January 28, 2014
Biomarkers
Ryan T Muir1,2, Andrew E Beaudin3, Cheryl R McCreary3,4
1University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Background:
This study examined whether plasma Aβ42/40, phosphorylated-tau (p-tau), neurofilament light chain (NfL) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) may relate to cognitive function and other neuroimaging biomarkers in cerebral amyloid angiopathy.
Method:
This is a cross-sectional analysis of a prospective cohort study of participants with CAA who had plasma collected, underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cognitive evaluation. Plasma Aβ was quantified independently through Simoa and immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometry (IP-MS), while p-tau181, NfL and GFAP were quantified through Simoa.
Result:
There were 45 participants with probable CAA (Boston criteria v2.0) eligible for analysis. In multivariable linear regression, adjusting for age, sex, and years of education, higher NfL levels were associated with lower Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) total score (β=-1.85, p = 0.02) while lower Aβ42/40 was associated with lower speed of processing both with IP-MS (β =0.63, p = 0.003) and Simoa (β =0.38, p = 0.02) methodology. After adjustment for age and sex, higher white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume was associated with lower Aβ42/40 (IP-MS), β =-0.48, p = 0.009 and higher p-tau181, β =0.35, p = 0.04, but not NfL or GFAP. Higher concentrations of plasma GFAP were associated with lower total cortical volumes (β =-0.40, p = 0.042). Furthermore, higher levels of NfL were associated with lower global cerebrovascular reactivity (β=-0.46, p = 0.008) and higher ordinal CAA severity scale score (aOR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.17, 4.36, p = 0.02).
Conclusion:
Lower plasma Aβ42/40 was associated with lower speed of processing function, while plasma NfL was associated with worse performance on a global measure of cognitive performance, lower cerebrovascular reactivity, and higher CAA severity score. Interestingly, higher p-tau181 and lower Aβ42/40 (IP-MS) was associated with higher WMH volumes. These findings suggest that cognitive impairment in patients with CAA may be associated with markers of progressive white matter damage rather than tau-related cortical injury.
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