Osteopontin Is Associated with Dementia in the Presence of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease.

Background: Osteopontin (OPN) is a proinflammatory cytokine that has been recently implicated in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. We hypothesized that an increase in plasma OPN is a deleterious neuroinflammatory marker in people with dementia and cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD).

Methods: A pilot study was conducted on participants in the Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS). Three groups were selected based on their dementia status and evidence of subclinical CSVD and chosen to be similar in age, sex, and education attainment: No dementia/No CSVD (n = 19), Dementia/No CSVD (n = 22), and Dementia + CSVD (n = 21). Dementia (any type) was diagnosed by consensus adjudication following a series of comprehensive neuropsychological assessments and a review of the medical history. CSVD was indicated by silent brain infarcts, enlarged perivascular spaces, cerebral microbleeds, and white matter hyperintensity volumes (WMHV) on MRI. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the difference in OPN levels across groups, adjusting for key determinants of CSVD and neurodegeneration.

Results: Plasma OPN levels were elevated in the Dementia+CSVD group (mean = 70.69 ± 39.00 ng/mL) but not in the Dementia/No CSVD group (mean = 45.46 ± 19.11 ng/mL) compared to the No Dementia/No CSVD group (mean = 36.43 ± 15.72 ng/mL). OPN was associated with Dementia+CSVD (Odds Ratio [OR] per ng/mL = 1.06, 95% CI 1.02-1.11) after adjusting for covariates, including brain volume. OPN was strongly correlated with WMHV (Spearman's rank correlation ρ = 0.46, p = 0.0001) but not with other components of CSVD.

Conclusion: In this pilot, greater levels of plasma OPN were associated with dementia with evidence of CSVD. This link was predominately driven by the contribution of OPN to dementia through the burden of white matter lesions.