The research at the Clínic-IDIBAPS, published in the journal Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, analysed a panel of 120 proteins in blood and cerebrospinal fluid in 359 people, including healthy individuals and people with Alzheimer's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies or frontotemporal dementia. The study used advanced proteomic technologies to characterize, in great detail, the molecular alterations associated with these diseases.
This work is the result of the Polaris project, funded exclusively by the Rosa Maria Vivar Foundation and which has allowed the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid samples, as well as a project funded by the Carlos III Health Institute and which has allowed the analysis of blood samples. The overall results show that, in all the dementias studied, women present a higher number of over-expressed proteins related to inflammation, most of them involved in cytokine signaling.
“Our results indicate that Alzheimer’s disease is not exactly the same in men and women,” explains Albert Lladó, a researcher on the team and one of the study’s leaders. “Disruptions in inflammatory processes seem more pronounced in women, suggesting that these could play a particularly important role in the development of the disease in women.”
According to Aina Comas, co-first author of the article, “identifying these differences can help us develop more specific and effective therapeutic strategies for each patient.” The fact that many of the proteins differentially altered in women are related to inflammation suggests that treatments targeting these pathways could have a particularly relevant impact on this group of patients. “Further research would help us move towards more personalized and gender-sensitive medicine in dementia.”
The study is one of the first to systematically analyse sex differences in multiple types of dementia using paired blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples, although in the latter fluid the differences are more subtle.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and affects millions of people worldwide. Although its prevalence is higher in women, the biological differences between the sexes had been scarcely studied until recently. This work helps to fill this gap and provides new tools to better understand this disease.
Reference article
Comas-Albertí, A., Lladó, A., Esteller-Gauxax, D. et al. Proteomic analysis in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias: a focus on sex-specific differences. Alz Res Therapy 18, 124 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-026-02068-7
