Abstract

Background

Blood-based markers of cognitive functioning might provide an accessible way to track neurodegeneration years prior to clinical manifestation of cognitive impairment and dementia.

Results

Using blood-based epigenome-wide analyses of general cognitive function, we show that individual differences in DNA methylation (DNAm) explain 35.0% of the variance in general cognitive function (g). A DNAm predictor explains ~4% of the variance, independently of a polygenic score, in two external cohorts. It also associates with circulating levels of neurology- and inflammation-related proteins, global brain imaging metrics, and regional cortical volumes.

Conclusions

As sample sizes increase, the ability to assess cognitive function from DNAm data may be informative in settings where cognitive testing is unreliable or unavailable.

Details

Title
Blood-based epigenome-wide analyses of cognitive abilities
Author
McCartney, Daniel L  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hillary, Robert F; Conole, Eleanor L S; Daniel Trejo Banos; Gadd, Danni A; Walker, Rosie M; Nangle, Cliff; Flaig, Robin; Campbell, Archie; Murray, Alison D; Susana Muñoz Maniega; del C Valdés-Hernández, María; Harris, Mathew A; Bastin, Mark E; Wardlaw, Joanna M; Harris, Sarah E; Porteous, David J; Tucker-Drob, Elliot M; McIntosh, Andrew M; Evans, Kathryn L; Deary, Ian J; Cox, Simon R; Robinson, Matthew R; Marioni, Riccardo E
Pages
1-16
Section
Research
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
BioMed Central
ISSN
14747596
e-ISSN
1474760X
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-021-02596-5
ProQuest document ID
2621048306
Copyright
© 2022. This work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.