Ухудшение сна у пожилых связано с увеличением объема хориоидного плекса и когнитивными нарушениями

Poorer self-reported sleep quality is associated with larger choroid plexus volumes, which in turn are associated with markers of neurodegeneration and poorer cognitive performance among cognitively unimpaired older adults, according to study results published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia. Although inadequate sleep has consistently been associated with age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative disease, the biological mechanisms connecting sleep disturbances with brain aging remain incompletely understood. Researchers therefore investigated whether alterations in the choroid plexus may help explain these relationships among older adults. The researchers analyzed baseline data from the Investigating Gains in Neurocognition in an Intervention Trial of Exercise (IGNITE; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02875301), an observational cohort study that included 635 cognitively unimpaired adults aged 65 to 80 years. Participants underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), wore wrist accelerometers to objectively measure sleep, and completed standardized cognitive testing. This framework may inform sleep-based interventions to preserve cognitive function and reduce risk for future neurodegenerative disease. The mean (SD) participant age was 69.9 (3.8) years, 71.7% were women, and 76.5% identified as White. The participants had a mean (SD) of 16.3 (2.2) years of education, and 27.4% carried at least 1 apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele. The mean (SD) PSQI total score was 6.1 (3.2), and the mean (SD) reported sleep duration was 6.98 (1.22) hours. Mean (SD) accelerometer-derived sleep duration was 6.71 (1.1) hours. After adjustment for age, sex, study site, and APOE ε4 carrier status, poorer self-reported sleep quality was associated with greater choroid plexus volume (β, 0.11; 95% CI, 0.03-0.18; P =.05). Lower self-reported sleep efficiency also was associated with greater choroid plexus volume in the quality-controlled analysis, whereas accelerometer-derived sleep measures were not. Greater choroid plexus volume was also independently associated with several MRI markers of neurodegeneration, including smaller hippocampal volume (β, -0.38; P <.01), lower gray matter volume (β, -0.09; P =.02), and greater ventricular volume (β, 0.64; P <.01). Additionally, shorter self-reported sleep duration was associated with lower gray matter volume (β, 0.10; P =.02). Mediation analyses further suggested that choroid plexus volume may help explain the relationships between poorer sleep quality and both hippocampal atrophy and ventricular enlargement. Larger choroid plexus volume significantly mediated the associations between worse subjective sleep quality and these neuroimaging markers, supporting a potential role for the choroid plexus in linking sleep disturbances with structural brain changes. Larger choroid plexus volume also was associated with poorer processing speed (β, -0.09; P =.05), executive function/attentional control (β, -0.10; P =.05), and working memory (β, -0.08; P =.05). Among the structural MRI measures evaluated, greater gray matter volume was consistently associated with better cognitive performance across all cognitive domains examined. Additional mediation analyses indicated that gray matter volume partially accounted for the associations between larger choroid plexus volume and poorer cognitive performance. Study limitations include the cross-sectional design, the partial reliance on self-reported sleep measures, and the inclusion of only cognitively unimpaired older adults, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. “This framework may inform sleep-based interventions to preserve cognitive function and reduce risk for future neurodegenerative disease,” the study authors concluded. Disclosures: One study author declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of disclosures. References: Chappel-Farley MG, Sewell KR, Collins AM, et al. Greater choroid plexus volume is linked to poor sleep, neurodegeneration, and cognitive deficits in older adults: evidence from the IGNITE Study. Alzheimers Dement. 2026;22:e71627. doi:10.1002/alz.71627