New research demonstrates that associations between various lipids and Alzheimer’s disease — a devastating neurological disease that disproportionately affects women — are more prominent in women and often absent in men.
Wretlind et al. aimed to investigate sex-specific single lipids associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Image credit: Wretlind et al., doi: 10.1002/alz.70512.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that affects an increasing number of people worldwide.
Women are disproportionately impacted by AD, accounting for approximately two thirds of all AD cases.
“Women are disproportionately impacted by AD and are more often diagnosed with the disease than men after the age of 80,” said Dr. Cristina Legido-Quigley, a researcher at King’s College London.
“One of the most surprising things we saw when looking at the different sexes was that there was no difference in these lipids in healthy and cognitively impaired men, but for women this picture was completely different.”
“The study reveals that AD’s lipid biology is different between the sexes, opening new avenues for research.”
The researchers took plasma samples from 841 participants who had AD, mild cognitive impairment and cognitively health controls and were measured for brain inflammation and damage.
They used mass spectrometry to analyze the 700 individual lipids in the blood. Lipids are a group of many molecules.
Saturated lipids are generally considered as ‘unhealthy’ or ‘bad’ lipids, while unsaturated lipid, which sometime contains omega fatty acids, are generally considered ‘healthy.’
The scientists saw a steep increase in lipids with saturation — the ‘unhealthy lipids’ — in women with Alzheimer’s compared to the healthy group.
The lipids with attached omega fatty acids were the most decreased in the Alzheimer’s group.
“Our study suggests that women should make sure they are getting omega fatty acids in their diet — through fatty fish or via supplements,” Dr. Legido-Quigley said.
“However, we need clinical trials to determine if shifting the lipid composition can influence the biological trajectory of AD.”
“Scientists have known for some time that more women than men are diagnosed with AD,” said Dr. Asger Wretlind, also from King’s College London.
“Although this still warrants further research, we were able to detect biological differences in lipids between the sexes in a large cohort, and show the importance of lipids containing omegas in the blood, which has not been done before.”
“The results are very striking and now we are looking at how early in life this change occurs in women.”
The study was published today in the Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
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Asger Wretlind et al. 2025. Lipid profiling reveals unsaturated lipid reduction in women with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s & Dementia 21 (8): e70512; doi: 10.1002/alz.70512
