Endocrine Abstracts

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative diseasethat is manifested by a progressive loss of cognitive and behavioral function. In previous studies, we have constructed a predictive model for the classification of AD patients based on levels of circulating steroids and their polar conjugates.

Both AD and Type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM) are well known to affect the levels of some steroid hormones, however, in the opposite direction, and in a gender-dependent manner. The aim of this study was to determine whether AD patients can be identified in the group of T2DM patients based on circulating steroids and their polar conjugates.

Methods: We evaluated the spectrum of steroid hormones in 86 patients with T2DM. The group consisted of 54 women (median age 71.2 years) and 32 men (median age 69.6 years), seven women and seven men had both AD and T2DM, the remaining 47 women and 25 men had only T2DM. To evaluate the balance between the steroids in reversible metabolic steps or activities of steroidogenic enzymes, we used product to precursor ratios. The data were processed by GLM ANOVA and multidimensional regression using O2PLS method (Statgraphics 18 × 64, SIMCA v 12.0).

Results: T2DM patients with AD generally exhibited lower adrenal steroidogenesis compared to T2DM patients without AD. Furthermore, there was decreased steroid sulfotransferase (SULT2A1) and 5α-Reductases (SRD5A) activities in the combined group of T2DM and AD but increased aldoketoreductases of subfamily 1C (AKR1C1) activity in both genders.

Conclusion: By using our O2PLS model, it is possible to distinguish between the group of patients with T2DM + AD and the group of only T2DM. The predictivity of the OPLS model for men is high: sensitivity = 0.875 (0.529, 0.978) and specificity = 1 (0.857, 1)as well as for women: sensitivity = 1 (0.646, 1) and specificity = 1 (0.917, 1).

Supported by the grants NV 18-01-00399, MH CZ-DRO (EU 00023761).