Correlation between cognitive impairment and serum phosphorylated tau181 protein in patients with preeclampsia

Yuanyuan Wang; Bin Guo; Ke Zhao; Linfeng Yang; Tao Chen

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2023.1148518

Correlation between cognitive impairment and serum phosphorylated tau181 protein in patients with preeclampsia

Front Aging Neurosci. 2023 Mar 28:15:1148518. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1148518. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yuanyuan Wang¹, Bin Guo², Ke Zhao³, Linfeng Yang², Tao Chen³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Binzhou Medical University, Yantai, Shandong, China.
² Department of Radiology, Jinan Maternity and Child Care Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, China.
³ Department of Clinical Laboratory, Jinan Maternity and Child Care Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, China.

Abstract

Objective: To study the cognitive function status, serum phosphorylated tau181 (P-tau181) protein level, and total tau (T-tau) protein level in patients with preeclampsia (PE), pregnant healthy controls (PHCs), and non-pregnant healthy controls (NPHCs), and to research their feasibility as serum biomarkers for evaluating cognitive functional impairment in PE patients.

Methods: Sixty-eight patients with PE, 48 NPHCs, and 30 PHCs were included. Cognitive functional status was assessed using standardized Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scales. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the level of serum P-tau181 and T-tau protein. The concentration of serum P-tau181 and T-tau protein were compared by one-way analysis of variance in the three groups of subjects. The correlation between P-tau181, T-tau, and SDMT was explore by multiple linear regression analysis. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of serum P-tau181 and SDMT were calculated to predict the cognitive level of subjects.

Results: PE patients significantly had lower scores on SDMT (47.97 ± 7.54) and MoCA (28.00 ± 2.00) than normotensive PHCs (30.00 ± 1.25, 54.73 ± 8.55, respectively). The significant difference was found in serum P-tau181 protein levels among the three groups [H(K) = 19.101, P < 0.001]. Serum P-tau181 was thicker in PE patients than PHCs or NPHCs (both P < 0.05). According to the ROC curve, T-tau had no statistical significance in predicting the ability of cognizance, while P-tau181 and SDMT had. The DeLong test showed that P-tau181 was better than T-tau in predicting the ability of cognizance (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: The patients with PE have occurred the decline of cognitive function during pregnancy. The high level of serum P-tau181 can be used as a clinical laboratory indication for non-invasive assessment of cognitive functional impairment in PE patients.

Keywords: Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT); cognitive function; preeclampsia; serum phosphorylated tau181 protein (P-tau181); tau protein.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the Technology Development Plan of Jinan (202134072 and 202225035), Science and Technology Project of Jinan Municipal Health Commission (2021-2-89 and 2021-2-93), and Special Fund for Scientific and Technological Innovation of Shandong Maternal and Child Health Care Commission (Lu Fu You Xie Fa 2021-19).