Fig 1.
Details of subjects' inclusion or exclusion in the current analysis.
Human subjects that were recruited and examined for the AddNeuroMed biomarker project were included or excluded in the current analysis based on the specific criteria, as described in Data cleaning and preprocessing sub-section of the Materials and methods section.
Table 1.
Demographic and clinical characteristics of study's subjects.
Fig 2.
SOMAscan measured plasma BNP-32 levels are significantly different between healthy or control subjects, subjects with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease patients.
Average or mean BNP-32 levels, containing pooled SOMAscan data, after 5 imputation iterations (see Data cleaning and preprocessing section within Materials and methods) were compared between healthy, control subjects or CTL (3006.54±15.84), subjects with mild cognitive impairment or MCI (2949.40±17.95), and subjects with probable Alzheimer's disease or AD (2969.83±11.20). BNP-32 levels were significantly different between the three groups of subjects, as shown by a one-way ANOVA (F(2, 616) = 3.29, p < 0.05). (*: p < 0.05.).
Fig 3.
BNP-32 levels are significantly different between APOE4 non-carriers and APOE4 carriers in the healthy, control and the Alzheimer's disease groups of subjects.
Average or mean BNP-32 levels, containing pooled SOMAscan data, after 5 imputation iterations (see Data cleaning and preprocessing section within Materials and methods), were compared within each group of subjects (1. healthy, control subjects or CTL, 2. subjects with mild cognitive impairment or MCI and 3. subjects with probable Alzheimer's disease or AD), between the APOE4-negative ("0") and the APOE4-positive ("1") subjects. Independent samples t-test was used to determine if there exists a statistically significant difference between different average values or means. A significant difference in BNP-32 levels when comparing APOE4 non-carriers and APOE4 carriers was established in healthy, control subjects and in subjects with probable AD. Differences were considered significant at a p value of < 0.05 and at < 0.1. Error bars represent a standard error. (**: p < 0.05; *: p < 0.1; n/s: non-significant.).
Fig 4.
BNP-32 levels are not different between the female and the male subjects.
Average or mean BNP-32 levels, containing pooled SOMAscan data, after 5 imputation iterations (see Data cleaning and preprocessing section within Materials and methods), were examined within each group of subjects (1. healthy, control subjects or CTL, 2. subjects with mild cognitive impairment or MCI and 3. subjects with probable Alzheimer's disease or AD), whereby the BNP-32 levels were compared between female ("F") and the male ("M") subjects. Independent samples t-test was used to determine if there exists a statistically significant difference between different average values or means. No statistically significant difference was present in BNP-32 levels between the female and the male subjects in any of the groups of subjects examined in this study. Error bars represent a standard error. (n/s: non-significant.).