# Proteomic biomarkers of incident cognitive impairment in Black and White adults

> **NIH NIH U01** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2024 · $805,230

## Abstract

Project Summary
Black adults in the U.S. have a disproportionately higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias
(ADRD) compared with non-Hispanic White adults. Disparities in cardiometabolic risk factors and diseases and
social determinants of health (such as educational access, stress due to discrimination, neighborhood factors,
and others) likely contribute to this disparity, but exact mechanisms are unknown. We hypothesize that
inflammation may be a key feature linking cardiometabolic and social determinants of health disparities with
the risk of incident cognitive impairment and dementia. We propose to test this hypothesis through systemic
analysis of the circulating proteome with risk of incident cognitive impairment and trajectories of cognitive
function in a large biracial population from the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke
(REGARDS) study. REGARDS is a longitudinal cohort of 30,239 non-Hispanic Black and White adults across
the contiguous U.S. with pre-existing genome-wide genotyping data and rich cardiovascular and
neurocognitive phenotyping. We will assess 3,072 circulating plasma proteins (including >700 inflammation
related proteins) for associations with risk factors for cognitive impairment, including age, social determinants
of health, and cardiometabolic risk factors, and with incident cognitive impairment and trajectories of cognitive
function over >17 years of follow-up. Differences in levels of identified proteomic biomarkers by race and sex
will be assessed. Finally, we will integrate available genome-wide genotyping data and the plasma protein data
newly generated in this study to determine if the protein data can elucidate mechanisms underlying
associations of previously identified genetic variants with dementia-related phenotypes. We hypothesize this
work will identify non-invasive protein biomarkers of cognitive impairment and ADRD, including risk biomarkers
which may have adverse levels in Black compared with White adults. This study is responsive to PAR-22-093
(NOT-AG-21-033: Health Disparities and Alzheimer’s Disease), assessing biological pathways that may
contribute to racial disparities in ADRD risk and related to NIA AD+ADRD Research Implementation Milestone
1.I. The proteomic data generated in this study will be made widely available to the scientific community
through appropriate public repositories (such as dbGaP). Results from this study may improve ADRD risk
prediction, elucidate biological mechanisms of ADRD, and improve understanding of factors that contribute to
ADRD health disparities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10807739
- **Project number:** 1U01AG082042-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Nels C. Olson
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $805,230
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-06-01 → 2029-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10807739

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10807739, Proteomic biomarkers of incident cognitive impairment in Black and White adults (1U01AG082042-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-09-07 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10807739. Licensed CC0.

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