Sleep EEG oscillation associations with plasma amyloid-β42 in apneic adolescents: a cross section study

• Published in: The European physical journal. ST, Special topics Special topics, 2023-05, Vol.232 (5), p.547-555
• Main Authors: Berdina, Olga, Madaeva, Irina, Bolshakova, Svetlana, Ukhinov, Erdem, Sholokhov, Leonid, Rychkova, Liubov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescents; Alzheimer's disease; Atomic; Biomarkers; Brain damage; Brain Physiology Meets Complex Systems; Classical and Continuum Physics; Cognition; Condensed Matter Physics; Homeostasis; Hypoxia; Materials Science; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Molecular; Optical and Plasma Physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Plasma; Regular Article; Sleep apnea; Teenagers
• ISSN: 1951-6355; 1951-6401
• DOI: 10.1140/epjs/s11734-023-00777-w

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is very serious and multifactorial sleep disorder in both adults and children. Growing evidence suggests some pathophysiological links between OSA and cognitive decline or Alzheimer's disease (AD). Based on associations between sleep homeostasis alteration in OSA and cognition, here we evaluated potential relationships between plasma Aβ42 levels with biophysical properties of slow wave sleep (SWS) and sleep spindles (SSs) in adolescent samples which different in weight and the presence of OSA. One-night in-lab polysomnography and morning blood collection were performed to estimate sleep EEG oscillation patterns and measure plasma Aβ42 levels. SWS was significantly negatively correlated with plasma Aβ42 in OSA patients only (with and without obesity). Despite a significant association between all SSs parameters and Aβ levels in both obese group (OSA + and OSA−) stronger correlations were observed in obese OSA + patients. So, spindle number, density and duration were positively correlated with Aβ42 levels, and spindle amplitude and frequency were negatively correlated with they. There was only one strong positive correlation between plasma amyloid and spindle number in the OSA non-obese adolescents. Altered SW and spindles activity during sleep in OSA may represent an early dysfunction related to amyloid, possibly reflecting brain damage through hypoxia and metabolic stress, or increased amyloid secretion and reduced Aβ clearance. So, SWA and SSs play important role in neuroplasticity and memory consolidation and they may represent a putative mechanism by which amyloid impairs cognition, as well as rendering it potentially new biomarkers for early neuronal dysfunction in young age.